Safe Spaces Embedded in Dangerous Contexts: How Chicago Youth Navigate Daily Life and Demonstrate Resilience in High‐Crime Neighborhoods

Abstract

Much is known about how experiences of community violence negatively affect youth, but far less research has explored how youth remain resilient while living in dangerous neighborhoods. This study addresses this need by analyzing in‐depth, geo‐narrative interviews conducted with 15 youth (60% Black, 27% Latinx, 53% female, 14 to 17 years old) residing in low‐income, high‐crime Chicago neighborhoods to explore youths’ perceptions of safety and strategies for navigating neighborhood space. After carrying geographical positioning system (GPS) trackers for an eight‐day period, youths’ travel patterns were mapped, and these maps were used as part of an interview with youth that explored daily routines, with special consideration paid to where and when youth felt safe. Drawing on activity settings theory and exploring youth voice, we find that experiences of community violence are commonplace, but youth describe how they have safe spaces that are embedded within these dangerous contexts. Perceptions of safety and danger were related to environmental, social, and temporal cues. Youth reported four overarching safety strategies, including avoidance, hypervigilance, self‐defense, and emotional management, but these strategies considerably varied by gender. We discuss implications for practice and future directions of research. Highlights This study explored Chicago youths' safety strategies and resilience in high‐crime neighborhoods. Safe and dangerous spaces are embedded or overlapping settings. All youth practiced safety strategies but they considerably varied by gender. Perceptions are intersubjectively created due to the codes, rules, and norms of community life. Violence is common and extreme in everyday life of this sample of Chicago adolescents.

Understanding peace through the world news

“…Many researchers use mobility data, such as mobile phone records and GPS traces [42][43][44][45][46] in combination with traditional data, to predict and prevent crime [47][48][49][50][51], compare how the different factors correlate with crime in various cities [52]. Moreover, researchers combine social media data with phone records to infer migration events [53][54][55][56][57] and use GPS data, combined with subjective and objective data, to study perceived safety [58].…”

Understanding peacefulness through the world news

“…Besides social media data, many researchers use mobility data, such as mobile phone records and GPS traces, usually in combination with traditional data, to predict and eventually prevent crime [6,11,26,70,92], to compare how the different factors correlate with crime in various cities [23], and to estimate deprivation and objective well-being [24,61,62,78]. In addition, researchers, combine social media data with mobile phone records to infer human migration and evaluate migration events [18,75] and use GPS data, combined with subjective and objective data, to study perceived safety [21]. Additionally, the volume and momentum of web search queries, such as Google Trends, provide useful indicators of periods of civil unrest over several countries [63,64], and contribute in capturing a decline in domestic violence calls per capita when immigration enforcement awareness increases [54].…”

An emerging youth‐centered model of community resilience in communities impacted by gun violence: Power through Black Community and Unity

“…Findings highlight the toll such violence takes on young people's lives and the resources needed to support well‐being. There is excellent emerging theoretical writing adopting strengths‐based approaches to describe community resources available to youth as they navigate the presence of community gun violence (e.g., McCrea et al, 2019), but with notable exception (e.g., DaViera et al, 2020) there are few empirical articles in this area. The goal of this research is to expand on and explore what school‐aged Black youth perceive and believe contributes to community resilience in neighborhoods impacted by gun violence.…”