The Strength of Association: Neighborhood Poverty and Social Deviance

Abstract

This issue of Anchorage Community Indicators examines the strength of association between neighborhood-level poverty in Anchorage neighborhoods— measured as the percentage of households falling below the federally designated threshold of poverty — and social deviance — measured as the annual rate of police calls-for-service for various offenses. These data show poverty to be significantly related to a number of police calls-for-service indicators. These simple measures of association (not causation) align with studies in other contexts which have found that communities experiencing economic hardship bear a double burden in that they also suffer a disproportionate amount of social problems.