Sergio Cortez

Sergio Cortez, 491 words
1st Article: "Perceived Racial and Ethnic Composition of Neighborhood and Perceived Risk of Crime" & 2nd Article: "Black Neighbors, Higher Crime? The Role of Racial Stereotypes in Evaluations of Neighborhood Crime"

What we're able to see while reading the text in the first article is that the fear of crime due to blacks being around has always been around, in recent times things have begun to escalate. What the whole issue seems to be and the reason that white individuals fear blacks is due to things such as illegal activities involving drugs as well as violent crimes occurring. Although some may argue that whites are simply just racist and hate the black community whites have a whole different story which is that they're not racist they just fear what comes with the presence of blacks. A study conducted in 1996 that involved 3000 Florida adults sought to learn if the perceived racial and ethnic composition was related to the perceived risk of crime. In this study hispanics were also included due to them being a fast growing and large group. What they found out was that factors relate at least some way with things such as the region in which they live in. Another study done which ended up using 1984 survey data showed that there was lower safety levels in neighborhoods that consisted of mostly blacks and also that neighbors who were much more different in race were also uneasy and had low safety levels. Basically the higher the black population present the less they felt at ease.
In the second article we see the reasons on why blacks are the biggest segregated race than any other one. The reason this is present very much in society is due to one main factor and that is if whites notice a very high population of blacks present in a neighborhood then they will avoid it at all costs and as a result of this there is no change seen in the neighborhood. So because of all this we don't really see that white and black interaction occurring. There is basically this big avoidance that whites are doing in order to avoid their contact with black individuals. Although findings describe this there are also findings where we see more details regarding how whites deal with the presence of blacks in neighborhoods. We notice that there actually is exceptions. A heavy concentration of blacks in a neighborhood certainly do scare away whites from presiding in it, but if there is about a third or lower presence of blacks then whites are actually more comfortable with living in areas with that amount of blacks. As the study continue we begin to see exactly why whites tend to avoid areas of higher black presence. That reason is that whites believe areas that barbour more blacks tend to have much more violence and crime. This has to be a very big factor when white families are searching for a home to settle in to raise their young so the thought of having a very low crime filled neighborhood is what keeps whites away from predominantly black neighborhoods.