Independent: A Biography of Lewis W. Douglas

Assessing the Race‐violence Relationship at the Macro Level: The Assumption of Racial Invariance and the Problem of Restricted Distributions*

“…First, left unresolved in this paper is what specifically underlies the diminishing effects of structural disadvantage on violence once levels reach the high range prevalent in many black neighborhoods. Although this research has largely focused on the rapid acceleration of effects, or diffusion of outcomes, once conditions (or the incidence of outcomes) reach a critical mass or threshold level (e.g., Crane, 1989Crane, , 1991 484 McNULTY Second, research shows that regardless of class composition, black and white neighborhoods are often of vastly different quality in terms of institutional supports (e.g., quality schools), service provision (e.g., "benign neglect" in police protection), and housing quality (e.g., public versus private market), factors that have been argued to partly mediate the effects of disadvantage on crime (Alba and Logan, 1993;Liska and Chamlin, 1984;Logan and Molotch, 1987;Massey and Denton, 1993;McNulty, 1999;McNulty and Holloway, 2000;Sampson and Wilson, 1995;Smith, 1986;Wilson, 1996). As Sampson and Wilson (1995:50-52) argue, it is within the vacuum of cultural social isolation, fostered by concentrated disadvantage, that subcultural adaptations (or "cognitive landscapes") emerge in which violence is tolerated and expected as a part of daily life.…”