Robert J. Sampson and his colleagues have devoted decades to studying the enduring impact of place.* They have found that two factors often predict whether a neighborhood is crime prone: Is there mutual trust and altruism among neighbors? and Are neighbors willing to intervene when children misbehave? A murder in Chatham, a resilient pocket on Chicago’s battered South Side, tests another of their theories of social cohesion: that neighborhood character is a major factor in its economic success.
Read the full story in The New York Times.
* Their work has been published in book form as Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012).
Related:
- Safety and Security: A Neighborhood Necessity (McKnight/Block)
