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Cited by 289Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation StudiesEnvironmental Justice and Health DisparitiesCrime Patterns and Interventions

The enduring impact of historical and structural racism on urban violence in Philadelphia

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Jacoby, Sara F., Dong, Beidi, Beard, Jessica H., Wiebe, Douglas J., Morrison, Christopher N.·2018·Social Science & Medicine
DOI 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.05.038PMC PMC7437144
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Abstract

Public health approaches to crime and injury prevention are increasingly focused on the physical places and environments where violence is concentrated. In this study, our aim is to explore the association between historic place-based racial discrimination captured in the 1937 Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) map of Philadelphia and present-day violent crime and firearm injuries. The creators of the 1937 HOLC map zoned Philadelphia based in a hierarchical system wherein first-grade and green color zones were used to indicate areas desirable for government-backed mortgage lending and economic development, a second-grade or blue zone for areas that were already developed and stable, a third-grade or yellow zone for areas with evidence of decline and influx of a "low grade population," and fourth-grade or red zone for areas with dilapidated or informal housing and an "undesirable population" of predominately Black residents. We conducted an empirical spatial analysis of the concentration of firearm assaults and violent crimes in 2013 through 2014 relative to zoning in the 1937 HOLC map. After adjusting for socio-demographic factors at the time the map was created from the 1940 Census, firearm injury rates are highest in historically red-zoned areas of Philadelphia. The relationship between HOLC map zones and general violent crime is not supported after adjusting for historical Census data. This analysis extends historic perspective to the relationship between emplaced structural racism and violence, and situates the socio-ecological context in which people live at the forefront of this association.

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  1. HARLEY JB, 1988 Maps, knowledge, and power from Cosgrove D and Daniels S, eds. The Iconography of Landscape. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 277– 312.
  2. WILDER CS, 2000 Vulnerable people, undesirable places A covenant with color: race and social power in Brooklyn. New York: Columbia University Press.

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Authors
Jacoby, S. F., Dong, B., Beard, J. H., Wiebe, D. J., & Morrison, C. N.
Affiliations
  • University of Pennsylvania (US)
  • Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (US)
  • Monash University (AU)
Corresponding author
Jacoby, Sara F.
ORCID
Venue
Social Science & Medicine
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2018-02
Volume
199
Pages
87-95
ISSN
0277-9536 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.05.038
PMC
PMC7437144
OpenAlex
W2616438631
Cited by
289
References
62
Citations by year
2026: 33 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 52 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 56 · 2021: 38 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 4
FWCI
23.81
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Social Science & Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • Monash University Research Portal (Monash University) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Penn Injury Science Center
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (R49CE002474)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Environmental Justice and Health Disparities
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
Keywords
structural racism, urban violence, violent crime, firearm injuries, firearm assault, residential segregation, racial segregation, Philadelphia, socio-ecological context
MeSH terms
Social Segregation, Adult, Female, Firearms, Housing, Humans, Male, Urban Population, Violence, Wounds, Gunshot, Philadelphia, History, 20th Century, Spatial Analysis, Racism

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