Constructing Renters as a Threat to Neighbourhood Safety

Heather Rollwagen

Housing Studies, 2015, vol. 30, issue 1, 1-21

Abstract: The physical and social organization of the urban environment plays a central role in the formation of individual perceptions of crime. This paper examines how the presence of rental housing is constructed as a risk to neighbourhood safety by urban homeowners. The presence of the ideology of homeownership fosters a social context in which renters are constructed as disinvested and irresponsible individuals. As a result, renters are perceived to pose both an indirect and direct threat to the safety of a neighbourhood. Data from 23 semi-structured interviews with urban homeowners are used to illustrate this process. The paper concludes by considering how these perceptions adversely affect tenants and perpetuate spatial patterns of inequality.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2014.925099

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