Violence in the Heights: The Torn Social Fabric of Inner-City Neighborhoods

Given the media attention and research focus on big cities with large minority populations, people have grown accustomed to associating violence with these attributes. Violence in the Heights counters that narrative to provide a fresh perspective on inner-city violence with a close look at violence and associated social disorder in a cluster of neighborhoods in a mid-sized, predominantly White city.

Eileen M. Ahlin studied 42 residents and their perceptions of and responses to violence to g...