Disadvantage and neighborhood violent crime: Do local institutions matter?

This article explores whether local institutions matter for controlling nei ghborhood violence. Disadvantaged neighborhoods have difficulty attracting and maintaining conventional institutions that help control crime. At the s ame time, institutional settings that are conducive to violence are more pr evalent. This article assesses whether certain local institutions provide a mechanism linking economic deprivation and residential instability to crim inal violence. Rates of total and individual violent crimes are examined fo r census tracts in Columbus, Ohio for 1990. The findings show that communit ies may reduce violent crime somewhat by developing a larger base of certai n types of local institutions (e.g., recreation centers) and preventing the encroachment of others (i.e., bars). Still, such institutional mechanisms do not explain why economic deprivation and residential instability are str ongly linked to violent crime. This suggests that efforts to substantially reduce violence in local communities must counter the macro-structural forc es that increase economic deprivation and lend to inner-city decline.