1. The Urban World, 9th Ed.
J. John Palen

2. Chapter 8: The Social Environment of Metro Areas: Strangers, Crowding, Homelessness, and Crime
Introduction
Dealing with Strangers
Codes of Urban Behavior
Defining Community
Categories of Local Communities
Density and Crowding
Homelessness
Urban Crime
Summary

3. Introduction
How do people outside their own defended neighborhood of “turf” cope with large numbers of other people whom they do not know?
How do we learn to operate in an urban world of strangers in which we are largely anonymous?

4. Dealing With Strangers
We cope by identifying strangers on the basis of two factors
Appearance
Spatial location

5. Codes of Urban Behavior
Neighboring
Large-city dwellers know fewer of their neighbors than do residents of smaller place
Persons who neighbor are likely to be:
Raising a family
Home during the day
Older and more settled
Homogenous

6. Neighbors and Just Neighbors
Three conditions encourage “real” neighboring
Functional interdependence
Preexistence of other relationships and bonds
Because they have fewer alternatives
Robert Putnam suggests that recent decades have witnessed declining membership in civic and social organizations, and an erosion of social capital
Satisfaction with neighborhood life cuts across owners and renters in all regions

7. Defining Community
Community has become an elastic social and theoretical concept holding diverse meanings
For the Chicago School, community was often a synonym for urban neighborhood
There is currently no consensus on the significance of community in modern social life

8. Categories of Local Communities
Defended neighborhood is an area that residents feel is their turf
The community of limited liability emphasizes the voluntary and limited involvement of residents in the local community
The expanded community of limited liability is more fragmented and diffuse than the community of limited liability. It is a larger area composed of multiple communities
The contrived or conscious community is an area consciously set up to create a community image

9. Density and Crowding Crowding Research
High density and crowding produce a long list of physical and behavioral pathologies
One’s social background and experience play a major role in how “high density” is defined
Contrary to the common assumption, density or crowding does not necessarily have either a negative of positive impact on urban life

10. Practical Implications
Rather than trying to escape crowds, people move toward areas of highest per-person density
Use of findings to produce more livable spaces in New York City’s commercial zoning practices

11. Homelessness Characteristics of the Homeless
66 percent of the homeless are single
68 percent are male
80 percent are aged 25 to 54
28 percent have less than a high school education
23 percent are veterans
41 percent white, 40 percent black, 11 percent Hispanic, and 9 percent other
One-third are children

12. Social Problems
The saying that the homeless are “just like you and me” is not accurate
Most homeless have high levels of social disabilities
Four out of 10 street people admit to having spent time in jail
62 percent have problems with alcohol
58 percent have drug abuse problems
57 percent have mental-health problems
There is a decreasing tolerance for street people, especially those seen as a public nuisance

13. Disappearing SRO Housing
The number of single-room-occupancy (SRO) unites has sharply decreased by over 80 percent in the last two decades
During the Reagan and senior Bush years ( ), federally subsidized programs were cut a massive 70 percent
Some homeless have created their own alternative social communities

14. Urban Crime Crime and Perceptions of Crime Broken Windows Theory
People’s perceptions of what is happening and the reality of what is actually happening differ considerably
Urban crime between 1993 and 2010 experienced not increases but sharp declines
Crime and cities do not necessarily go together
Broken Windows Theory
Suggest that the best way to control crime is to prevent it, and the best way to prevent crime is not by concentrating police efforts on solving major crimes, but focusing on preventing minor quality-of-life offenses
Argues that people fear a sense of disorder, and by creating a sense of order in a neighborhood crime can be prevented

15. Crime and City Size Crime and Male Youth
The belief that the larger the city, the higher the crime rate is an urban myth
The United States’ homicide rate is higher than that of other developed countries
The highest crime rates by a good margin are found in cities of 250,000 to 500,000 population
Crime and Male Youth
45 percent of all crimes, except murder, are committed by people under 18, and three-quarters are committed by those under 25
Crime is also still largely a male activity

16. Crime and Race
Historically, poor newcomer groups to the city have used crime as an alternate route to social mobility
Whites mostly commit crimes against whites and blacks against blacks
Blacks are more than five times as likely to be homicide victims as are whites; today, one of every 68 black males can expect to be murdered during the course of a lifetime
African males also have the highest probability of being an offender
This often leads to racial profiling

17. Crime Variations within Cities
Crime rates tend to be highest in central-city neighborhoods and to decrease as one moves toward the periphery
Inner-city areas that have not been invaded by disadvantaged newcomers are often among the most stable, low-crime areas in the city
Crime in the Suburbs
Crime rates in the suburbs are increasing
Suburban crime rates tend to be less violent than city crime
Affluent suburbs keep crime rates down by restricting certain economic activities and populations