Broken Neighborhoods: A Hierarchical Spatial Analysis of Assault and Disability Concentration in Washington, DC.

Objective: This study seeks to better understand the relationship between neighborhood disability concentration and police calls for assault with a deadly weapon. Is this relationship the result of neighborhood concentrated disadvantage, or does disability act independently of other ecological characteristics associated with high crime rates? Methods: The authors combine Census and other neighborhoodlevel data from Washington, DC to test a one-level random intercept hierarchical multiple regression model using Census tracts as a grouping variable. Disability concentration is measured by the percent of disabled residents living in a block group. Concentrated disadvantage is a composite measure including percent households below poverty line, percent families on public assistance, percent African American, percent female-headed households with children, and percent unemployed. Assault with a deadly weapon is a rate per 1,000 of police calls for assault in 2005-2006. Results: The effect of disability concentration is partially mediated by other ecological factors, but remains a significant predictor of neighborhood rates of reported assault. Each one-unit increase in percent disabled increased police calls for assault by 0.14 %. Conclusions: The results of the analyses suggest that although concentrated disadvantage does affect the relationship between disability concentration and crime, it exerts an independent effect on neighborhood rates of assault with a deadly weapon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]