Neighborhood Crime and the Racial

Neighborhood Crime and the Racial Ruth D.Peterson and Lauren J. Krivo. Divergent Social Worlds: Neighborhood Crime and the Racial-Spatial Divide New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 2010.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Neighborhood Crime and the Racial-Spatial Divide Review specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Ruth and Lauren organized the book around the concept of racial spatial divide. The book is presented in a manner that links racial inequality in terms of social and economic conditions and power to unequal residential locations and segregated settlements across ethnic lines and ratio groups. The authors present the racial spatial divide in a hierarchical structure where whites are the most advantaged, occupy the most powerful and prestigious positions in government and live in the best neighborhoods while Americans of African descents are the most disadvantaged and only occupy disadvantaged and less powerful positions in the US government. Othe r ethnic groups such as Asians and Latinos occupy positions between the black Americans and the white Americans. According to the book, poverty and other social economic inequalities are strongly associated with certain races and the more they are concentrated in a certain race then the more violent tendencies associated with people of that particular race. A major theoretical contribution of the book is with regards to the integration of various theoretical perspectives with borrowings from fields such as criminology, racial and ethnic divides and urban sociology. The theoretical framework advanced by the authors uses residential segregation as the connection between social position in terms of racial background and the differences in crime levels among various communities. The authors have explained the complicated issues surrounding social and institutional inequalities that favour the white residential areas compared to the residential areas of other lower races like Latinos and African Americans. They have therefore made it clear that segregation is the reason why social worlds of people in the US are very different and depend on neighborhood colour. The authors have also made it clear that racial segregation and associated disadvantages are the reasons why neighborhood crime is associated with certain races or ethnic groups.Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Ruth and Lauren carried out an empirical study that sought to investigate how the levels of neighborhood crime vary across different racial communities and ethnic groups for a sample set of cities across the US. They used multi level Poisson distributions to record the occurrences of crime across various ethnic groups. The authors investigated the extent to which differences in social inequalities and racial segregation among various communities influence the levels of crime in these neig hborhoods. Some of the variables used to predict crime rates were residential instability, disadvantages, immigration of residents, and city characteristics such as segregation and percentage manufacturing. There were significant correlational relations among the study variables. They also investigated how inequality in the character of surrounding settlements contributes to ethnic differences in the levels of crime. In terms of linking racial segregation, neighborhood and crime prevalence, the authors have clearly shown that there is a significant relationship. The book has presented a clear view of the nature of the American racial spatial divide and how the social injustices and disadvantages experienced by some communities lead to the prevalence of neighborhood crime and other forms of violence in those neighborhoods. It is therefore important for the government to develop policies aimed at managing this racial spatial divide in order to curb violence and crime in such neighborh oods. A good example of such could be the upgrading the housing system in African American neighborhoods to reach the standards of white neighborhoods.