Abstract
To what extent can the strength of a local urban community impact neighborhood safety? We construct measures of community vibrancy based on a unique dataset of block party permit approvals from the City of Philadelphia. Our first measure captures the overall volume of block party events in a neighborhood whereas our second measure captures differences in the type (regular versus spontaneous) of block party activities. We use both regression modeling and propensity score matching to control for the economic, demographic and land use characteristics of the surrounding neighborhood when examining the relationship between crime and our two measures of community vibrancy. We conduct our analysis on aggregate levels of crime and community vibrancy from 2006 to 2015 as well as the trends in community vibrancy and crime over this time period. We find that neighborhoods with a higher number of block parties have a significantly higher crime rate, while those holding a greater proportion of spontaneous block party events have a significantly lower crime rate. We also find that neighborhoods which have an increase in the proportion of spontaneous block parties over time are significantly more likely to have a decreasing trend in total crime incidence over that same time period.
Highlights
Why does the crime rate vary so strikingly between neighborhoods in large cities? Common factors associated with high crime rates include poverty levels, job availability, policing, and the average age of the population
We investigate whether there is an association between these measures of community vibrancy and crime incidence at the neighborhood level in Philadelphia
The association between community vibrancy, crime incidence and these other neighborhood characteristics means that any comparison of crime incidence that we make between high vibrancy and low vibrancy neighborhoods could be confounded by an imbalance on these other neighborhood characteristics
Summary
Why does the crime rate vary so strikingly between neighborhoods in large cities? Common factors associated with high crime rates include poverty levels, job availability, policing, and the average age of the population. We create two quantitative measures of community vibrancy that are intended to capture different aspects of community cohesion and social organization: the total number of block party events and the proportion of spontaneous block party events in a neighborhood This second measure distinguishes between two major types of block party events: regular block party events for public or religious holidays versus spontaneous block party events. The total number of block party events (both regular and spontaneous) is a measure of the overall strength of community cohesion and potentially general guardianship against crime Within this total amount of block party activity, higher versus lower spontaneous proportion may provide additional information on the scale of community involvement in these events, with spontaneous events (like birthdays and graduations) likely to be more focused around particular households. The more concentrated nature of these spontaneous events could result in more localized contributions to community cohesion and guardianship against crime
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