Black Visibility, City Size, and Social Control

Abstract

The research reported in this article tests the hypothesis that the relationship between the public fiscal commitment to policing and minority group size is not the same in small cities as it is in large cities. The results of a comparison of all cities in the United States that were greater than 50,000 in population in 1970 with those that were between 25,000–50,000 at that time indicates that the impact of the relative size of the black population on social control efforts differs in both strength and form in the two subpopulations. In large cities percent black has a significant impact on the level of resources devoted to policing, and a curvilinear impact on capital policing expenditures even after other determinants of policing expenditures have been controlled. In small cities the relationship is insignificant or weak. These results suggest that blacks are perceived as a greater threat to the social order in large cities than they are in small cities. It is possible that the anonymity and lower level of informal social control characteristic of large cities increases both fear of crime and the degree of threat represented by the minority group. The higher level of social cohesion and informal surveillance characteristic of smaller cities could be inhibiting the extent to which blacks are perceived as a threat to the existing order, and thereby preventing the iink between percent black and formal social control efforts that is found in large cities.

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