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Nancy A. Denton

Bio: Nancy A. Denton is an academic researcher from State University of New York System. The author has contributed to research in topics: Population & Immigration. The author has an hindex of 24, co-authored 55 publications receiving 13033 citations. Previous affiliations of Nancy A. Denton include University at Albany, SUNY & University of Pennsylvania.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that racial segregation is crucial to explaining the emergence of the urban underclass during the 1970s and that a strong interaction between rising rates of poverty and high levels of residential segregation explains where, why and in which groups the underclass arose.
Abstract: This article argues that racial segregation is crucial to explaining the emergence of the urban underclass during the 1970s. A strong interaction between rising rates of poverty and high levels of residential segregation explains where, why and in which groups the underclass arose. This argument is developed with simulations that replicate the economic conditions observed among blacks and whites in metropolitan areas during the 1970s but assume different conditions of racial and class segregation. These data show how a simple increase in the rate of minority poverty leads to a dramatic rise in the concentration of poverty when it occurs within a racially segregated city. Increases in poverty concentration are, in turn, associated with other changes in the socioeconomic character of neighborhoods, transforming them into physically deteriorated areas of high crime, poor schools, and excessive mortality where welfare-dependent, female-headed families are the norm. Thus, policies to solve the socioeconomic pr...

5,621 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, residential segregation is viewed as a multidimensional phenomenon varying along five distinct axes of measurement: evenness exposure concentration centralization and clustering, and 20 indices of segregation are surveyed and related conceptually to 1 of the five dimensions.
Abstract: This paper conceives of residential segregation as a multidimensional phenomenon varying along 5 distinct axes of measurement: evenness exposure concentration centralization and clustering. 20 indices of segregation are surveyed and related conceptually to 1 of the 5 dimensions. Using data from a large set of US metropolitan areas the indices are intercorrelated and factor analyzed. Orthogonal and oblique rotations produce pattern matrices consistent with the postulated dimensional structure. Based on the factor analyses and other information 1 index was chosen to represent each of the 5 dimensions and these selections were confirmed with a principal components analysis. The paper recommends adopting these indices as standard indicators in future studies of segregation. (authors)

2,833 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is concluded that blacks occupy a unique and distinctly disadvantaged position in the U.S. urban environment and are likely to be segregated on all five dimensions simultaneously, which never occurs for Hispanics.
Abstract: Residential segregation has traditionally been measured by using the index of dissimilarity and, more recently, the P* exposure index. These indices, however, measure only two of five potential dimensions of segregation and, by themselves, understate the degree of black segregation in U.S. society. Compared with Hispanics, not only are blacks more segregated on any single dimension of residential segregation, they are also likely to be segregated on all five dimensions simultaneously, which never occurs for Hispanics. Moreover, in a significant subset of large urban areas, blacks experience extreme segregation on all dimensions, a pattern we call hypersegregation. This finding is upheld and reinforced by a multivariate analysis. We conclude that blacks occupy a unique and distinctly disadvantaged position in the U.S. urban environment.

729 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined trends in residential segregation for blacks Hispanics and Asians in 60 [U.S.] SMSAs between 1970 and 1980 using data taken from the 1970 Fourth Count Summary tapes and the 1980 Summary Tape File 4.
Abstract: This paper examines trends in residential segregation for blacks Hispanics and Asians in 60 [U.S.] SMSAs between 1970 and 1980 using data taken from the 1970 Fourth Count Summary tapes and the 1980 Summary Tape File 4. Segregation was measured using dissimilarity and exposure indices. Black segregation from Anglos declined in some smaller SMSAs in the south and west but in large urban areas in the northeastern and north central states there was little change; in these areas blacks remained spatially isolated and highly segregated....Hispanic segregation was markedly below that of blacks but increased substantially in some urban areas that experienced Hispanic immigration and population growth over the decade....Asian segregation was everywhere quite low. (EXCERPT)

700 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article examined patterns of ethnic and racial segregation in U.S. cities by using individual-level data from the 1970 census and found that these patterns were consistent with the theory of spatial assimilation and reinforced earlier substantive conclusions.
Abstract: Patterns of ethnic and racial segregation in U.S. cities are examined. Specifically the authors replicate earlier analyses of census tract data in selected cities by using individual-level data from the 1970 census. "Prior findings were reconfirmed thereby validating the theory of spatial assimilation and reinforcing earlier substantive conclusions. Results also indicate that to the extent that ecological biases affect the pattern of results errors of substantive interpretation are conservative in nature. Thus models estimated using census tract data for 1980 (when appropriate micro information will not be available) are not likely to yield erroneous conclusions." (EXCERPT)

428 citations


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Journal ArticleDOI
15 Aug 1997-Science
TL;DR: Multilevel analyses showed that a measure of collective efficacy yields a high between-neighborhood reliability and is negatively associated with variations in violence, when individual-level characteristics, measurement error, and prior violence are controlled.
Abstract: It is hypothesized that collective efficacy, defined as social cohesion among neighbors combined with their willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good, is linked to reduced violence. This hypothesis was tested on a 1995 survey of 8782 residents of 343 neighborhoods in Chicago, Illinois. Multilevel analyses showed that a measure of collective efficacy yields a high between-neighborhood reliability and is negatively associated with variations in violence, when individual-level characteristics, measurement error, and prior violence are controlled. Associations of concentrated disadvantage and residential instability with violence are largely mediated by collective efficacy.

10,498 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The super-diversity in Britain this article is defined by a dynamic interplay of variables among an increased number of new, small and scattered, multiple-origin, transnationally connected, socio-economically...
Abstract: Diversity in Britain is not what it used to be. Some thirty years of government policies, social service practices and public perceptions have been framed by a particular understanding of immigration and multicultural diversity. That is, Britain's immigrant and ethnic minority population has conventionally been characterized by large, well-organized African-Caribbean and South Asian communities of citizens originally from Commonwealth countries or formerly colonial territories. Policy frameworks and public understanding – and, indeed, many areas of social science – have not caught up with recently emergent demographic and social patterns. Britain can now be characterized by ‘super-diversity,’ a notion intended to underline a level and kind of complexity surpassing anything the country has previously experienced. Such a condition is distinguished by a dynamic interplay of variables among an increased number of new, small and scattered, multiple-origin, transnationally connected, socio-economically...

3,909 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Findings underscore the need for research efforts to identify the complex ways in which economic and non-economic forms of discrimination relate to each other and combine with socio-economic position and other risk factors and resources to affect health.
Abstract: This article examines the extent to which racial differences in socio-economic status (SES), social class and acute and chronic indicators of perceived discrimination, as well as general measures of stress can account for black-white differences in self-reported measures of physical and mental health. The observed racial differences in health were markedly reduced when adjusted for education and especially income. However, both perceived discrimination and more traditional measures of stress are related to health and play an incremental role in accounting for differences between the races in health status. These findings underscore the need for research efforts to identify the complex ways in which economic and non-economic forms of discrimination relate to each other and combine with socio-economic position and other risk factors and resources to affect health.

3,541 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article provides a comprehensive review of research on the effects of neighborhood residence on child and adolescent well-being and suggests the importance of high socioeconomic status for achievement and low SES and residential instability for behavioral/emotional outcomes.
Abstract: This article provides a comprehensive review of research on the effects of neighborhood residence on child and adolescent well-being. The first section reviews key methodological issues. The following section considers links between neighborhood characteristics and child outcomes and suggests the importance of high socioeconomic status (SES) for achievement and low SES and residential instability for behavioral/emotional outcomes. The third section identifies 3 pathways (institutional resources, relationships, and norms/collective efficacy) through which neighborhoods might influence development, and which represent an extension of models identified by C. Jencks and S. Mayer (1990) and R. J. Sampson (1992). The models provide a theoretical base for studying neighborhood mechanisms and specify different levels (individual, family, school, peer, community) at which processes may operate. Implications for an emerging developmental framework for research on neighborhoods are discussed. Social science concerns about the effects of residence in a poor neighborhood on children and youth date back more than 50 years to the publication of Shaw and McKay's (1942) Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas. Historical accounts of the effects of living in a poor neighborhood date back even further. The current interest in neighborhood effects on, children and youth has multiple origins. First, Wilson's (1987) documentation of increasingly concentrated poverty in urban areas at the neighborhood level during the 1970s and 1980s served to reorient discussions of poverty from the individual to the neighborhood level. Second, and related to the work of Wilson, was the rejuvenated interest among sociologists and urban scholars in community social disorganization theory (Shaw & McKay, 1942) as an explanatory model for delinquency and crime, as well as other problem behaviors encountered in many poor urban neighborhoods (see, e.g., Bursik, 1988; Kornhauser, 1978; Sampson, 1992; Sampson & Groves, 1989; see Sampson & Morenoff, 1997, for a review). Social disorganization theory posits that neighborhood structural factors, such as poverty, residential instability, single parenthood, and ethnic heterogeneity, are of prime importance in explaining behavior through their ability to thwart or promote neighborhood organization (formal and informal institutions), which maintains public order. Other scholars, although not necessarily focusing on child wellbeing, drew attention to residential (or spacial) patterns as sources

3,303 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is argued that a focus on structural racism offers a concrete, feasible, and promising approach towards advancing health equity and improving population health.

2,615 citations