The Contribution of Crime to Urban Decline

Abstract

The fact that crime is higher in the larger urban centers and in the central cities of metropolitan areas suggests that crime has contributed to suburbanisation. Previous studies have been unable to extricate crime from other causes of suburbanisation and central city decline. The present study of residential mobility isolates the effect of property crime from other neighborhood characteristics, such as accessibility to workplace and social composition. In Dallas it is found that the repelling effects of crime for potential movers is greater for families with children than without and for more affluent families, white and black.