Harold M. Rose

Race, Place, and Risk Revisited A Perspective on the Emergence of a New Structural Paradigm

In 1990, our study of Black homicide in six cities over 25 years, Race, Place and Risk: Black Homicide in Urban America, was published. In the epilogue, the authors identified the emergence of a new phase of violent behavior occurring in low-income Black communities but were not able to identify its etiology. This article extends into the early to mid-1990s our earlier work on Black homicide in urban America. The authors focus on the 8-year interval, 1985 to 1993, after the publication of Race, Place and Risk. The factor that distinguishes homicides of the current period from those of our earlier period is that the age of both victimization and offending has moved downward. In an effort to identify the reasons for this downward shift, the authors examine victimization in 4 previous high-risk urban places (Atlanta, GA; Detroit, MI; St. Louis, MO; and Los Angeles, CA), and 4 newly emerged, high-risk centers (Washington, DC; New Orleans, LA; Milwaukee, WI; and Charlotte, NC). The authors suggest that the development of an oppositional culture among young Black males is an important element in accounting for the most recent upsurge in lethal victimizations in the nations larger urban centers.

BLACKS AND CUBANS IN METROPOLITAN MIAMI'S CHANGING ECONOMY

The exponential growth in selected Sunbelt cities since 1960 is now well documented, and metropolitan Miami is recognized as one of the acknowledged targets of Sunbelt growth and development. What is less often acknowledged, is the impact of the transformation of such places on segments of the residential population. In this paper, primary attention will be directed at two subpopulations -- Blacks and Cubans residing in metropolitan Miami just prior to the takeoff era. At the time of takeoff, Blacks represented a quasi-caste population whose role in the Miami economy was typical of that of Blacks in the economy of the urban South, a peripheral one. Cubans, on the other hand, were just beginning to enter the metropolitan economy in substantial numbers and the first wave of migrants from Cuba had yet to make its impact felt. After the passage of almost a generation it is fitting to examine how well metropolitan miamis two primary ethnic minorities have fared in penetrating, and/or altering the metropolitan economy.

The Link Between Black Teen Pregnancy and Economic Restructuring in Detroit: A Neighborhood Scale Analysis.

Detroits economy, based largely on automobile production, experienced a major downturn during the decade of the 1970s. With the collapse of jobs in this economic sector, the citys black community began to manifest the full range of behaviors said by Wilson to be associated with the underclass. In this paper attention is focused on a single behavior-teen pregnancy. A sample of neighborhoods were selected as a means of testing Wilsons thesis that a set of social dislocation variables were associated with increasing levels of intensity in teen fertility. Weak support for at least one variable was found in each time period. We concluded, however, that high levels of teen fertility was not confined to neighborhoods identified as underclass, thereby casting doubt on the use of the underclass label to describe selected neighborhoods.