On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 16:14:35 -0500, "I. M. White"

Interestingly, there is a study from the University of Wisconsin which shows that residents *perceive* crime to be a problem in direct proportion to the number of young black men who live in the neighborhood even in neighborhoods which have low rates of crime.

The study, by sociology buttistant professor Lincoln Quillian and graduate student Devah Pager, found residents in Chicago, Baltimore and Seattle to be influenced strongly by the racial composition of their neighborhood in judging its level of crime.

The study indicates that even in neighborhoods with low crime rates, residents perceive crime to be a big problem when young black men live in the area.

In fact, the percentage of young black men in a neighborhood more closely matched perceptions of crime than the actual neighborhood crime rates as reported in police department and victimization surveys. The authors found that the higher the percentage of young black men in a neighborhood, the greater the residents' perceptions of crime.

"These results demonstrate the strong stereotypes people have about blacks and crime. People automatically buttume that if there are young black men around, they must be engaged in crime. It's just not true," Pager says.

In the study, residents were asked to rate the level of crime in their neighborhoods. These ratings were then matched with neighborhood census data and police reports.

"The significance of this study is that it is the first study to show that white perceptions buttociating black neighbors with higher crime do not merely reflect actual crime but result from an overestimation of the buttociation between race and crime," Quillian says.

-- Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits