Homicide In and Around Public Housing: Is Public Housing a Hotbed, a Magnet, or a Generator of Violence for the Surrounding Community?

“In contrast, Griffiths and Tita (2009) found no evidence that public housing is a generator of violence in the surrounding area.”

“Griffiths and Tita (2009) found that the presence of public housing in South Los Angeles was associated with higher homicide.19 19 Griffiths and Tita (2009) found that homicide victims in public housing census blocks were more likely to be killed near their homes and by someone who lives nearby…”

“Alternatively, researchers with access to data about crime locations and both offenders’ and victims’ home addresses might use mobility triangles to better understand offending and victimization patterns among public housing community residents (Griffiths and Tita 2009; Tita and Griffiths 2005).”

“This is particularly true of public housing where, due to high levels of social isolation, crime is persistently high without attracting violence from non-local offenders or generating violence in surrounding neighborhoods (Griffiths & Tita, 2009).”

“Provision of these family supportive services is not related to increased crime as some criminological researchers have claimed (Griffiths & Tita, 2009; McCord & Ratcliffe, 2007; Rengert, Ratcliuffe, & Chakravoty, 2005), even though cities that plan for child care and provide affordable housing and…”

“Griffiths and Tita (2009) used tractlevel data on homicides in Los Angeles to explore whether public housing is a ‘hotbed’ for crime. MacDonald, Hipp, and Gill (2013) also used tract-level crime data in Los Angeles to investigate the effects of immigrant concentration on crime. Hipp and Yates (2009) used tract-level d…”

“While public housing has a number of environmental and social characteristics that couple offenders to place (Griffiths and Tita, 2009), such characteristics may be considerably weaker for individual street segments within a community.”

“…results from previous research have been inconsistent, with some studies finding a negative impact of subsidized housing on neighborhood crime while others have found an insignificant impact (DeLone, 2008; Galster, Pettit, Santiago, & Tatian, 2002; Griffiths & Tita, 2009; McNulty & Holloway, 2000).”

“Still, PHAs justify no-trespass policies by concluding that the majority of crime that occurs in its communities is caused by non-residents (see Goldstein 2003) – a finding only meagrely supported empirically (Walsh et al. 2000, Griffiths and Tita 2009).”

“Griffiths and Tita (2009) find that the homicides committed in public housing dwellings in one Los Angeles area are more likely to have local victims than the homicides in other similar, low-income neighborhoods, but they are also more likely to be committed by local offenders.”

“…(LaGrange, 1999; Roman, 2003; Roncek & Lobosco, 1983), parks (Groff & McCord, 2012), public or other crime-prone housing (Dunworth & Saiger, 1994; Griffiths & Tita, 2009; Millie, 2008; U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 1999), drug-dealing locations (Bernasco & Block, 2011; Scott…”

“of aggregation, and specific cities (29).”

“These factors often explain why many supportive housing programs and shelters are located in disadvantaged neighborhoods (Griffiths & Tita, 2009).”

“4 To understand how banishment policies reframe the broken windows theory within public housing, one must understand that public housing authorities assert that non-residents are the source of crime in public housing [18,21,22,42].”

“However, existing studies have examined historic redlining [7, 20, 38, 56] or present-day housing policies [10, 30, 43, 71] independently, but few have considered both.”

“Furthermore, PHC may act as crime generators and/or attractors (P. L. Brantingham & Brantingham, 1995) by supplying suitable targets (Griffiths & Tita, 2009) or attracting offenders for illegitimate reasons (e.g., narcotics dealing; see Weisburd & Green, 1995).”

“…of homicide data from the Southeast Policing Area of Los Angeles, they not only characterized these developments as “hotbeds” of violent crime but they also concluded that a majority of these violent crimes were committed by offenders who resided within said developments (Griffiths & Tita, 2009).”

“Other planners emphasize the economic dimension and analyze how labor (Galster, Hayes, and Johnson 2005; Fan 2012) and property markets (Griffiths and Tita 2009) relate to geographic distributions of crime in cities.”

“…(Hirsch 1983; Massey and Kanaiaupuni 1993)—the very places where social isolation and anonymity are thought to be most intense—and because crime rates and mistrust in assisted housing tend to be high (Griffiths and Tita 2009; Moore 1969; Newman 1972; Popkin et al. 2000; Rainwater 1966).”

“However, Grif fi ths and Tita (2009) showed that there was no signi fi cant effect of public housing on homicide in Los Angeles.”

“The current study seeks to examine the assumption that residential locations of gang associates are mostly found within the confines of their gang's territory (see Griffiths & Tita, 2009).”

“However, spillover effects of neighborhood violence in housing projects were not supported (Griffiths and Tita, 2009).”

“This finding aligns with previous research that observed a disproportionate rate of fire-arm violence within public housing both in NYC [7] and other urban areas [10].”

“modErNist PuBliC, 2008, 26–27; Griffiths and Tita 2011; Davis 1997; Fishman 2004).”

“Low-income housing residents also experience increased levels of criminal victimization relative to people who do not live in low-income housing developments (DeFrances and Smith 1998; DeKeseredy et al. 2003; Griffiths and Tita 2009; Holzman, Hyatt, and Dempster 2001; Kling, Liebman, and Katz 2005).”

“According to Griffiths and Tita (2009), homicide rates in public housing units are significantly higher than in comparable areas, which they ascribe to social alienation within the units.”

“Many urban public housing communities are disproportionately represented by people of color (60%; Family data on public and Indian Housing, ), and social isolation in this context is inextricably linked to high rates of exposure to community violence (Griffiths & Tita, 2009).”

“…2008), disaggregated homicide motivations occur relatively proportionately across southeast L.A.’s public housing and non-public housing areas (Griffiths & Tita, 2009), and homicides occurring in southeast L.A.’s public housing developments tend to be a relatively “local” phenomenon…”