Perceptions of the Neighborhood and the Desire to Move Out

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Abstract
A study of various perceptions of the neighborhood indicates that such perceptions are related to each other and to the desire to move out of the neighborhood. The study sample included 1000 adults, twenty-five to sixty years old, married, and living with their spouse. One half of the respondents lived in high stress census tracts (that is, characterized by a low socioeconomic level and high level of “social disorganization”) and the other half lived in low stress tracts. The sample was also divided equally by sex and race of respondent. The major findings of the study show that living in a high stress area has a strong influence on: familiarity with events of crime and violence in the neighborhood, negative evaluation of the police, perception of the neighborhood as unsafe, criticism of facilities in the neighborhood, dislike of the neighborhood, and desire to move out. Sex of the respondent played a small role in these findings, but race seemed to be a more important factor: black respondents had more negative perceptions of the neighborhood than did white respondents, particularly in the high stress neighborhoods. The perceptions of the neighborhood are interrelated in various ways.

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