Powerlessness and the amplification of threat: Neighborhood disadvantage, disorder, and mistrust

A theory of trust is developed and tested. The theory posits that mistrust develops in neighborhoods, where resources are scarce and threat is common, and among individuals with few resources and who feel powerless to avoid o r manage the threat. Perceived neighborhood disorder common in disadvantage d neighborhoods where disadvantaged individuals live, influences mistrust d irectly and indirectly by increasing residents' perceptions of powerlessnes s which in turn amplify disorder's effect on mistrust. The hypotheses are e xamined using the Community, Crime, and Health data, a 1995 survey of a rep resentative sample of 2,482 Illinois residents with linked data on neighbor hoods. Net of individual disadvantage, residents of disadvantaged neighborh oods have low levels of trust as a result of high levels of disorder in the ir neighborhoods: People who report living in neighborhoods with high level s of crime, vandalism, graffiti, danger noise, and drugs are more mistrusti ng. The sense of powerlessness, which is common in such neighborhoods, ampl ifies the effect of neighborhood disorder on mistrust.