Drawing on the social disorganization tradition and the social ecological perspective of Jane Jacobs, the authors hypothesize that neighborhoods composed of residents who intersect in space more frequently as a result of routine activities will exhibit higher levels of collective efficacy, intergenerational closure, and social network interaction and exchange. They develop this approach employing the concept of ecological networks—two-mode networks that indirectly link residents through spatial overlap in routine activities. Using data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey, they find evidence that econetwork extensity (the average proportion of households in the neighborhood to which a given household is tied through any location) and intensity (the degree to which household dyads are characterized by ties through multiple locations) are positively related to changes in social organization between 2000–2001 and 2006–2008. These findings demonstrate the relevance of econetwork characteristics—heretofore neglected in research on urban neighborhoods—for consequential dimensions of neighborhood social organization.

This study integrates insights from social network analysis, activity space perspectives, and theories of urban and spatial processes to present an innovative approach to neighborhood effects on health-risk behavior among youth. We suggest spatial patterns of neighborhood residents’ non-home routine activities may be conceptualized as ecological, or “eco”-networks, which are two-mode networks that indirectly link residents through socio-spatial overlap in routine activities. We further argue structural configurations of eco-networks are consequential for youth’s behavioral health. In this study we focus on a key structural feature of eco-networks—the neighborhood-level extent to which households share two or more activity locations, or eco-network reinforcement—and its association with two dimensions of health-risk behavior, substance use and delinquency/sexual activity. Using geographic data on non-home routine activity locations among respondents from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS), we constructed neighborhood-specific eco-networks by connecting sampled households to “activity clusters,” which are sets of spatially-proximate activity locations. We then measured eco-network reinforcement and examined its association with adolescent dimensions of health risk behavior employing a sample of 830 youth ages 12-17 nested in 65 census tracts. We also examined whether neighborhood-level social processes (collective efficacy and intergenerational closure) mediate the association between eco-network reinforcement and the outcomes considered. Results indicated eco-network reinforcement exhibits robust negative associations with both substance use and delinquency/sexual activity scales. Eco-network reinforcement effects were not explained by potential mediating variables. In addition to introducing a novel theoretical and empirical approach to neighborhood effects on youth, our findings highlight the importance of eco-network reinforcement for adolescent behavioral health.

The great expansion in imprisonments in the United States in the past 35 years is puzzling partly because this abrupt growth is completely unprecedented. Changes in the crime rates alone cannot explain this trend, and ideational accounts that focus on penal styles are problematic. Political explanations, however, show promise, given that governments must provide domestic order and candidates can use public concerns about race and street crime to win elections. This review highlights the empirical literature in sociology and also discusses some important findings in political science and economics. Law-and-order campaign appeals combined with a covert emphasis on the links between race and street crime used to overcome Republican electoral disadvantages seem to provide the most plausible explanations for the rapid increase in U.S. imprisonment rates in this racially divided society. Dissimilar political arrangements help explain why imprisonment trends in the United States have sharply departed from these trends in the affluent but less direct democracies in Western Europe. 129 Annu. Rev. Law. Soc. Sci. 2010.6:129-149. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by Mahidol University on 02/08/15. For personal use only.

Neighborhoods are salient contexts for youth that shape adolescent development partly through informal social controls on their behavior. This research examines how immigrant concentration within and beyond the residential neighborhood influences adolescent alcohol use. Residential neighborhood immigrant concentration may lead to a cohesive, enclave-like community that protects against adolescent alcohol use. But heterogeneity in the immigrant concentrations characterizing the places residents visit as they engage in routine activities outside of the neighborhood where they live may weaken the social control benefits of the social ties and shared cultural orientations present in enclave communities. This study investigates whether the protective influence of residential neighborhood immigrant concentration on adolescent alcohol consumption diminishes when youth live in communities where residents collectively are exposed to areas with more diverse immigrant concentrations. This study tests this contention by analyzing survey and geographic routine activity space data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey, and the 2000 census. The sample includes 793 adolescents (48.7% female, 16.5% foreign-born Latino, 42.5% US-born Latino, 11.0% black, 30% white/other) between the ages of 12 and 17 who live in 65 neighborhoods in Los Angeles County. Immigrant concentration among these neighborhoods derives primarily from Latin America. The results from multilevel models show that immigrant concentration protects against adolescent alcohol use only when there is low neighborhood-level diversity of exposures to immigrant concentration among the contexts residents visit outside of their residential neighborhood. This research highlights the importance of considering the effects of aggregate exposures to non-home contexts on adolescent wellbeing.

The Combined Effect of Women's Neighborhood Resources and Collective Efficacy on IPVThis study integrates gender stratification and social disorganization theories to examine neighborhood effects on intimate partner violence (IPV). Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, multilevel models assessed the influences of women's neighborhood-level socioeconomic resources relative to men's and collective efficacy on a woman's risk of IPV victimization by her spouse or cohabiting partner. The findings indicate that women's relative neighborhood resources protect against IPV victimization only in neighborhoods with sufficiently high collective efficacy. Likewise, the results show that collective efficacy protects against IPV victimization only when women have at least a modicum of control over neighborhood resources compared to men. The findings emphasize the importance of considering group resources along with neighborhood social organization to better understand IPV. More broadly, this study demonstrates how a group's position in a neighborhood social hierarchy helps determine the extent to which its members benefit from neighborhood social control. BackgroundResearch has suggested that the likelihood of violent victimization in part is explained

Drawing on one element of Jacobs' (1961) discussion of the social control benefits of “eyes on the street,” this paper explores the link between the prevalence of active streets and violence in urban neighborhoods. Three distinct data sources from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods are merged to explore the functional form and potential contingency of the active streets-violence relationship: (1) video data capturing the presence of people on neighborhood streets; (2) longitudinal data on adolescents (ages 11 to 16) and their self-reports of witnessing severe violence; and (3) community survey data on neighborhood social organizational characteristics. Results from multilevel models indicate that the proportion of neighborhood streets with adults present exhibits a nonlinear association with exposure to severe violence. At low prevalence, the increasing prevalence of active streets is positively associated with violence exposure. Beyond a threshold, however, increases in the prevalence of active streets serves to reduce the likelihood of violence exposure. The analyses offer no evidence that the curvilinear association between active streets and violence varies by levels of collective efficacy, and only limited evidence that it varies by anonymity. Analyses of data on homicide and violent victimization corroborate these findings.

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Research links neighborhood social disorder with poorer health. But factors beyond observed disorder may influence perceptions that social disorder is problematic. This study investigates whether women’s aggregate socioeconomic resources relative to men’s in the broader neighborhood context attenuate the extent to which more prevalent observed social disorder within the immediate residential neighborhood contributes to perceptions of more problematic social disorder. This attenuation likely is pronounced among women, for whom sexual harassment in public spaces is a more salient concern compared to men. Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, multilevel models analyze individual perceptions of problematic social disorder (N=3,107) regressed on the interactive effect of observed social disorder within the census block group (N=525) and women’s relative resources within the neighborhood cluster (N=80). The results show that women’s relative resources within the broader neighborhood context protect against women’s perceptions that typically undesirable neighborhood conditions are problematic.