THE IMPACT OF CRIME ON COMMUNITIES

Current wisdom suggests that high or increasing crime levels make comm unities decline. Researchers usually translate decline to mean an incr easing desire to move or higher actual mobility of residents; weaker a ttachments of residents to, and satisfaction with, their neighborhood; less local involvement; and lower house values. Empirical research co nfirms only some of this wisdom. Crime relates as expected to house pr ices, neighborhood satisfaction, and the desire to move. But research simultaneously suggests that crime neither spurs mobility nor necessar ily decreases local involvement. Past research fails to differentiate the impacts of specific crime rates and does not examine impacts of st atic versus changing crime rates. This article examines impacts of pas t and changing crime levels on changes in relative house values and va cancy rates in Baltimore, Maryland, neighborhoods in the 1970s. The re sults reveal that different crimes influence different aspects of the housing market. Past and changing crime rates play roles in ecological transitions of neighborhoods. In keeping with the current findings of contingent impacts of racial change on mobility, I suggest that impac ts of crime and related problems on neighborhood viability may be cont ingent on personal, historical, and locale-specific factors.