The Influence of Gentrification and Murders by Youths

Abstract

Research shows that gentrification influences crime. However, there are no quantitative studies on gentrification’s impact on juvenile offending. This paper begins to fill this gap by examining the impact of gentrification on homicides by juveniles. To do this, we use Block, Block, and Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority’s data on Chicago Homicides from 1965 through 1995. We couple these data with historical census data to create a dataset of victims killed by juveniles within gentrified and non-gentrified census tracts. We employ a pooled, longitudinal Poisson regression model. Our findings indicate that gentrification is moderately and negatively associated with people killed by juveniles.