Defended Neighborhoods, Integration, and Racially Motivated Crime

Abstract

This article investigates demographic and macroeconomic correlates of racially motivated antiminority crime in New York City (1987‐95). Event count models indicate that crimes directed against Asians, Latinos, and blacks are most frequent in predominantly white areas, particularly those that had experienced an in‐migration of minori‐ties. No relationship is found between rates of racially motivated crime and macroeconomic conditions, such as the rate of unemploy‐ment among non‐Hispanic whites; nor does there appear to be an interaction between economic conditions and in‐migration of minor‐ities. These findings seem to parallel ethnographic accounts of "de‐fended" white urban neighborhoods. The article concludes by dis‐cussing the empirical implications of this theoretical perspective as applied to prejudice‐based crime in other contexts.