View article

Using a longitudinal data set of 317 neighborhoods from 1996 to 2002 in Utrecht, The Netherlands, this study tests whether types of crime differentially impact (a) the mechanisms of social disorganization theory and (b) residents’ mobility behavior and attitudes toward the neighborhood. Neighborhoods with more cohesion have less violence 2 years later. Also, neighborhoods perceiving more violence experience lower levels of cohesion 2 years later. Higher levels of perceived violence were most important for explaining who moves out of the neighborhood, as such neighborhoods had more non-Whites and more lower income households at the next time point. Burglaries (a crime that occurs in private space) appear to increase residents’ sense of feeling responsibility for the neighborhood.