Race, Concentrated Poverty, Social Isolation, and Political Behavior

Abstract

The author examines the relative impact of concentrated-poverty neighborhoods and social isolation on the political behavior of white and black inner-city residents. She demonstrates that social isolation undermines the political participation of blacks and that residence in concentrated-poverty neighborhoods is most detrimental to the political participation of whites. The effects of social isolation and concentrated-poverty neighborhoods exert substantively and statistically significant effects on the political behavior of whites as well as blacks above and beyond the influences of human capital characteristics and sociopolitical resources.