Abstract

The objective of this research is to investigate the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and juvenile delinquency and recidivism (the proportion of delinquents who commit crimes following completion of a court-ordered program) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We acquired data on collective efficacy, socioeconomic character, and crime for input into multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) and spatial econometric regression analyses. Both delinquency and recidivism are concentrated in impoverished neighborhoods with violent crime, although this relationship is far stronger for delinquency than for recidivism. After accounting for the influence of crime and poverty, OLS regression results suggest that African American neighborhoods tend to exhibit higher delinquency rates, but lower recidivism rates, than other neighborhoods. Spatial lag models of recidivism rate indicate the presence of spatial spillover effects, which renders the influence of neighborhood racial character on recidivism rate not significant and which we speculate represents interaction among juveniles across neighborhood boundaries.

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