2004/12/01 by Robert J. Sampson, Stephen W. Raudenbush · 1 citation
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Context (archaeology) #Crime Patterns and Interventions #Empirical research #Epistemology #Essentialism #Gender studies #Geography #Inequality #Perception #Political science #Poverty #Prejudice (legal term) #Psychology #Situated #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Social psychology #Sociology #Stigma (botany) #Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
paper · doi:10.1177/019027250406700401
crossref issued 2004/12/01 · crossref published 2004/12/01 · crossref published-online 2004/12/01 · crossref published-print 2004/12/01 · openalex publication_date 2004/12/01 · crossref created 2010/01/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref deposited 2026/05/01 · crossref indexed 2026/07/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
This article reveals the grounds on which individuals form perceptions of disorder. Integrating ideas about implicit bias and statistical discrimination with a theoretical framework on neighborhood racial stigma, our empirical test brings together personal interviews, census data, police records, and systematic social observations situated within some 500 block groups in Chicago. Observed disorder predicts perceived disorder, but racial and economic context matter more. As the concentration of minority groups and poverty increases, residents of all races perceive heightened disorder even after we account for an extensive array of personal characteristics and independently observed neighborhood conditions. Seeing disorder appears to be imbued with social meanings that go well beyond what essentialist theories imply, generating self-reinforcing processes that may help account for the perpetuation of urban racial inequality.