Change and stability in ethnic diversity across urban communities: Explicating the influence of social cohesion on perceptions of disorder
| Author | Rebecca Wickes,Lorraine Mazerolle,Michele Haynes,Renee Zahnow |
| Published date | 01 December 2013 |
| Date | 01 December 2013 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0004865813486903 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Australian & New Zealand
Journal of Criminology
46(3) 335–356
!The Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865813486903
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Article
Change and stability in ethnic
diversity across urban
communities: Explicating the
influence of social cohesion on
perceptions of disorder
Renee Zahnow, Rebecca Wickes,
Michele Haynes and Lorraine Mazerolle
The University of Queensland, Australia
Abstract
A growing body of research shows that perceived community disorder is not solely driven by
crime, but is influenced by the community’s social cohesion and ethnic composition. Drawing
on two waves of survey data from 2509 and 2651 individuals in Wave 1 and Wave 2 respect-
ively, living in 71 communities in Brisbane Australia, we examine changes in ethnic compos-
ition over two time periods and how these changes influence perceived neighbourhood
disorder. We also test whether or not social cohesion mediates these associations. Our
findings indicate that high proportions of Indigenous residents and high levels of reported
crime averaged across time are associated with greater perceived disorder. Whereas
increases in household income over time are associated with lower perceived disorder.
We also find that social cohesion is strongly associated with perceived disorder over time,
but does not mediate the relationship between the racial and ethnic composition of the
community and disorder. Yet when a community’s social cohesion is considered, the effect
of increasing household income becomes non-significant.
Keywords
disadvantage, disorder, ethnic diversity, social cohesion
Introduction
For the best part of eighty years, criminologists have examined the relationship between
neighbourhood characteristics and physical and social disorder. Scholarship indicates
that the presence of physical disorder (e.g. overgrown lawns, dilapidated housing, graffiti
and vandalism) and social disorder (e.g. public drunkenness and loitering teens) is
Corresponding author:
Renee Zahnow, School of Social Science/Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland St Lucia
Campus, Brisbane 4072 Australia.
Email: r.zahnow@uq.edu.au
associated with fear (Markowitz et al., 2001; Ross and Jang, 2000), social withdrawal
(Geis and Ross, 1998), serious crime (Skogan, 2008; Wilson and Kelling, 1982) and
distorted perceptions of who might be causing the problems (see Wickes et al., in
press a). Studies are starting to emerge (see for example Sampson and Raudenbush,
2004; Steenbeek and Hipp, 2011; Taylor et al., 2010; Wickes et al., in press a) that
examine the relationship between the racial and ethnic composition of communities
and how people perceive (or perhaps distort) the levels of disorder in their own com-
munity. What is clear from this body of literature is that the racial and ethnic compos-
ition of a community is strongly associated with crime, criminality and disorder. This is
the case in the Australian context as well. For example, Shaw (2000: 291) describes the
ongoing ‘discourse of decline’ associated with urban Aboriginal settlements, whereby the
presence of Indigenous residents is linked with community deterioration. More recently,
Wickes and her colleagues (in press a) show that when residents perceive a greater
proportion of minority residents in their community they report greater perceived
disorder.
In the literature there are two approaches to explain the relationship between the
racial/ethnic composition of the community and disorder. The first suggests that as
minority groups are often clustered in disadvantaged communities, it is disadvantage
and not necessarily the presence of particular groups that directly influences perceptions
of disorder (Sampson and Raudenbush, 2004; Taylor et al., 2010). A second explanation
for the relationship between the racial/ethnic composition of the community and dis-
order is that the presence of particular minority groups erodes social cohesion
(Fieldhouse and Cutts, 2010; Goodhart, 2004; Putnam, 2007; Stolle et al., 2008;
Sturgis et al., 2011a, 2011b) which then increases perceptions of crime and disorder
(Markowitz et al., 2001; Steenbeek and Hipp, 2011). From this perspective, the racial
and ethnic composition of the community indirectly influences disorder through social
cohesion (see also Wickes et al., in press a).
Most studies concerned with understanding the relationship between the racial and
ethnic composition of the community and disorder rely on cross-sectional data
(Sampson, 2009; Sampson and Raudenbush, 2004; Taylor et al., 2010). Few consider
the changing nature of the relationship between community racial/ethnic composition
and perceived disorder and even fewer consider if this relationship can be mediated by
other community level mechanisms like social cohesion (for exceptions see Markowitz
et al., 2001; Steenbeek and Hipp, 2011). However, as contemporary debates about
immigration are largely rooted in concerns regarding the negative impact of increasing
ethnic diversity, our study examines how changes in the racial/ethnic composition of the
community might influence residents’ perceptions of disorder over time.
This paper examines changes in racial/ethnic composition drawing on 2001 and 2006
census data and two waves of survey data from 2509 and 2651 individuals in Wave 1 and
Wave 2, respectively, in a sample of 71 communities in Brisbane and explores how these
changes influence perceived neighbourhood disorder from 2005 to 2008. We also test
whether or not social cohesion mediates the relationship between changing and enduring
community characteristics and perceived disorder over time. We utilise survey data from
the Australian Community Capacity Study (ACCS), census and crime data to examine
the factors that influence perceived disorder over time. Three research objectives drive
336 Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 46(3)
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