(2011-03-15) Neighborhood Poverty

Studies have illustrated that crime and delinquency, education, psychological distress, and various health problems, among many other issues, are affected by Neighborhood characteristics. Thresholds, or Tipping Point-s, also prove important. In a recent review of research, Galster notes that studies suggest “that the independent impacts of neighborhood Poverty rates in encouraging negative outcomes for individuals like crime, school leaving, and duration of poverty spells appear to be nil unless the neighborhood exceeds about 20 percent poverty, whereupon the externality effects grow rapidly until the neighborhood reaches approximately 40 percent poverty; subsequent increases in the poverty population appear to have no marginal effect.” cf Broken Windows