Restricted access

Research article

First published December 2004

Request permissions

Seeing Disorder: Neighborhood Stigma and the Social Construction of “Broken Windows”

Robert J. Sampson and Stephen W. RaudenbushView all authors and affiliations

Volume 67, Issue 4

https://doi.org/10.1177/019027250406700401

Abstract
References

Abstract

This article reveals the grounds on which individuals form perceptions of disorder. Integrating ideas about implicit bias and statistical discrimination with a theoretical framework on neighborhood racial stigma, our empirical test brings together personal interviews, census data, police records, and systematic social observations situated within some 500 block groups in Chicago. Observed disorder predicts perceived disorder, but racial and economic context matter more. As the concentration of minority groups and poverty increases, residents of all races perceive heightened disorder even after we account for an extensive array of personal characteristics and independently observed neighborhood conditions. Seeing disorder appears to be imbued with social meanings that go well beyond what essentialist theories imply, generating self-reinforcing processes that may help account for the perpetuation of urban racial inequality.

Get full access to this article

View all access and purchase options for this article.

References

Aneshensel Carol S., Sucoff Clea A. 1996. “The Neighborhood Context of Adolescent Mental Health.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 37: 293–310

Banaji Mahzarin R. 2002. “Social Psychology of Stereotypes.” Pp 15100–104 In International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, edited bySmelser Neil J., Baltes Paul B. Oxford: Elsevier

Bobo Lawrence 2001. “Racial Attitudes and Relations at the Close of the Twentieth Century.” Pp. 264–301 in America Becoming: Racial Trends and Their Consequences, vol. 1, edited bySmelser Neil J., Wilson William J., Faith Mitchell Washington, DC: National Academy Press

Bobo Lawrence, James Kluegel 1997. “Status, Ideology, and Dimensions of Whites' Racial Beliefs and Attitudes: Progress and Stagnation.” Pp. 93–120 in Racial Attitudes in the 1990s: Continuity and Change, edited bySeven Tuch, Jack Martin Westport, CT: Praeger

Bobo Lawrence, Michael Massagli 2001. “Stereotyping and Urban Inequality.” Pp. 89–162 in Urban Inequality: Evidence From Four Cities, edited byO'Connor Alice, Charles Tilly, Lawrence Bobo New York: Russell Sage Foundation

Carter Woody, Jody Dougherty, Karen Grigorian 1996. “Videotaping Neighborhoods.” Working paper, National Opinion Research Center (NORC). Chicago

Charles Camille Zubrinsky 2000. “Neighborhood Racial-Composition Preferences: Evidence From a Multiethnic Metropolis.” Social Problems 47: 379–407

Charles Camille Zubrinsky 2003. “The Dynamics of Racial Residential Segregation.” Annual Review of Sociology 29: 167–207

Correll Joshua, Bernadette Park, Charles Judd, Bernd Wittenbrink 2002. “The Police Officer's Dilemma: Using Ethnicity to Disambiguate Potentially Threatening Individuals.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83: 1314–29

Cutrona Carolyn, Daniel Russell, Robert Hes, Brown P. Adama, Velma Murry 2000. “Direct and Moderating Effects of Community Context on the Psychological Well-Being of African American Women.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79: 1088–1101

Devine Patricia 1989. “Stereotypes and Prejuice: Their Automatic and Controlled Components.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 56: 5–18

Duneier Mitchell 1999. Sidewalk. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Ewart Craig K., Sonia Suchday 2002. “Discovering How Urban Poverty and Violence Affect Health: Development and Validation of a Neighborhood Stress Index.” Health Psychology 21: 254–62

Fagan Jeffrey, Garth Davies 2000. “Street Stops and Broken Windows: Terry, Race, and Disorder in New York City.” Fordham Urban Law Journal 28: 457–504

Fischer Claude 1982. To Dwell Among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Fiske Susan 1998. “Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination.” Pp. 357–411 in Handbook of Social Psychology, edited byGilbert Daniel T., Susan Fiske, Gardner Lindzey New York: McGraw- Hill

Geis Karlyn J., Ross Catherine E. 1998. “A New Look at Urban Alienation: The Effect of Neighborhood Disorder on Perceived Powerlessness.” Social Psychology Quarterly 61: 232–46

Goffman Erving 1963. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. New York: Simon and Schuster

Grannis Rick 1998. “The Importance of Trivial Streets: Residential Streets and Residential Segregation.” American Journal of Sociology 103: 1530–64

Hagan John 1994. Crime and Disrepute. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge

Harcourt Bernard 2001. Illusion of Order: The False Promise of Broken Windows Policing. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

Huttenlocher Janellen, Larry Hedges, Vevea Jack L. 2000. “Why Do Categories Affect Stimulus Judgement?” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 129: 220–41

Irwin John 1985. The Jail: Managing the Underclass in American Society. Berkeley: University of California Press

Jacobs Jane 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House

Kefalas Maria 2003. Working-Class Heroes: Protecting Home, Community, and Nation in a Chicago Neighborhood. Berkeley: University of California Press

Kelling George, Catherine Coles 1996. Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities. New York: Free Press

Linares L. H. Heeren, Timothy Bronfman, Zuckerman Elisa Barry, Marilyn Augustyn, Edward Tronick 2001. “A Mediational Model for the Impact of Exposure to Community Violence on Early Child Behavior Problems.” Child Development 72: 639–52

Loury Glenn 2002. The Anatomy of Racial Inequality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

Massey Doug, Nancy Denton 1993. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

Mayhew Henry 1862. London Labor and the London Poor. London: Griffin, Bohn

Mitchell Carey Usher, Mark LaGory 2002. “Social Capital and Mental Distress in an Impoverished Community.” City and Community 1: 195–215

National Opinion Research Center (NORC). 1995. Systematic Social Observation Coding Manual. Unpublished document. Chicago

Pattillo-McCoy Mary E. 1999. Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril Among the Black Middle Class. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Perkins Douglas D., Abraham Wandersman, Rich Richard C., Taylor Ralph B. 1993. “The Physical Environment of Street Crime: Defensible Space, Territoriality and Incivilities.” Journal of Environmental Psychology 13: 29–49

Pfautz Harold W (Ed.) 1967. Charles Booth on the City: Physical Pattern and Social Structure. Selected Writings. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Quillian Lincoln, Devah Pager 2001. “Black Neighbors, Higher Crime? The Role of Racial Stereotypes in Evaluations of Neighborhood Crime.” American Journal of Sociology 107: 717–67

Raudenbush Stephen W., Bryk Anthony S. 2002. Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods. 2nd ed. Newbury Park, CA: Sage

Raudenbush Stephen W., Sampson Robert J. 1999. “'Eometrics': Toward a Science of Assessing Ecological Settings, With Application to the Systematic Social Observation of Neighborhoods.” Sociological Methodology 29: 1–41

Reiss Albert J. Jr. 1971. “Systematic Observations of Natural Social Phenomena.” Pp. 3–33 in Sociological Methodology, edited byHerbert Costner San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Ross Catherine E. 2000. “Neighborhood Disadvantage and Adult Depression.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 41: 177–87

Ross Catherine E., Reynolds John R., Geis Karlyn J. 2000. “The Contingent Meaning of Neighborhood Stability for Residents' Psychological Well-Being.” American Sociological Review 65: 581–97

Sampson Robert J., Morenoff Jeffrey D., Thomas Gannon-Rowley 2002. “Assessing ‘Neighborhood Effects’: Social Processes and New Directions in Research.” Annual Review of Sociology 28: 443–78

Sampson Robert J., Raudenbush Stephen W. 1999. “Systematic Social Observation of Public Spaces: A New Look at Disorder in Urban Neighborhoods.” American Journal of Sociology 105: 603–51

Schelling Thomas 1971. “Dynamic Models of Segregation.” Journal of Mathematical Sociology 1: 143–86

Sedlmeier Peter, Gerd Gigerenzer 2001. “Teaching Bayesian Reasoning in Less Than Two Hours.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 130: 380–400

Skogan Wesley 1990. Disorder and Decline: Crime and the Spiral of Decay in American Cities. Berkeley: University of California Press

Stinchcombe Arthur 1963. “Institutions of Privacy in the Determination of Police Administrative Practice.” American Journal of Sociology 69: 150–60

Taylor Ralph B. 2001. Breaking Away From Broken Windows: Baltimore Neighborhoods and the Nationwide Fight Against Crime, Grime, Fear, and Decline. Boulder: Westview

Wacquant Loïc J.D. 1993. “Urban Outcasts: Stigma and Division in the Black American Ghetto and the French Urban Periphery.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 17: 366–83

Werthman Carl, Irv Piliavin 1967. “Gang Members and the Police.” Pp. 56–98 in The Police: Six Sociological Essays, edited byDavid Bordua New York: Wiley

Whittemore Alice S. 1989. “Errors-in-Variables Regression Using Stein Estimates.” American Statistician 43: 226–28

Wilson James Q., George Kelling 1982. “The Police and Neighborhood Safety: Broken Windows.” The Atlantic Monthly 127: 29–38

Wilson William J. 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

You currently have no access to this content. Visit the access options page to authenticate.