Moving Up or Moving Out? Examining Gentrification and the Spatial Displacement of Crime

Abstract

One unexamined aspect in gentrification and crime research is whether perceived crime declines in gentrifying neighborhoods are due to the displacement of crime into nearby areas. Using an innovative measure of gentrification, we examine whether Los Angeles neighborhoods identified as having gentrified between 2000 and 2018 experienced differential change in crime relative to neighborhoods that did not gentrify; and whether gentrification in spatially proximate neighborhoods influenced crime in the focal neighborhood, a sign of displacement. We found neighborhoods surrounded by gentrified neighborhoods saw an increase in property, but not violent, crime. The impact of spatial gentrification was not contingent on change in crime in the focal, suggesting the impacts of gentrification are spatially diffuse, but do not necessarily displace crime.