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The Emergence of Outside Perception of Neighborhood
Disorder: Individual Characteristics and Social Structure
Abstract
The paper examines the formation of people’s outside perception of neighborhood
disorder – how they perceive the problems in others’ communities. Though researchers
have documented the association between outside perception of disorder and racial
residential segregation, our knowledge about the emergence of the perception is limited.
Using the data from the Detroit Area Study (DAS) 2004 and Census 2000, the paper
demonstrates that both individual characteristics of observers and the structure of their
own communities, as well as the interaction between the two, affect their perception of
disorder in the given neighborhoods with controlled visual cues. The influences of these
factors reveal some aspects of racial ideology and neighborhood effects in today’s U.S.
Key Words
Outside perception of disorder, racial residential segregation, visual cues, individual
characteristics, structure of neighborhood
In recent years, social scientists in various disciplines have become increasingly
interested in the concept of neighborhood disorder. Neighborhood disorder refers to
perceived lack of order and social control in the community (Skogan 1990). Order is a
state of peace, safety, and observance of law; social control is an act of maintaining this
order (Ross 2000). Neighborhood order and disorder are indicated by visible cues that
residents perceive (Skogan 1986, Skogan & Maxfield 1981, Taylor 1996, Taylor & Hale
1986, Taylor & Shumaker 1990). Neighborhoods characterized by order are clean and
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Convention