Subjectivities of broken windows: Assessing the relationship among crime perceptions, sociodemographic factors, and built environment on neighborhood vacancy perceptions in New Orleans

In this paper, we use binary logistic regression to investigate whether physical vacancy perceptions are associated with sociodemographic factors, neighborhood-level built environment characteristics, and different perceptions of crime (i.e., level of crime generally; predominance of property crime versus violent crime; changing magnitude of crime over time). We analyze survey data (N = 401) from randomly selected households in seven neighborhoods in New Orleans, Louisiana. Our analyses yield four major findings: first, women, non-White respondents, and residents living in urban neighborhoods were more likely to perceive higher neighborhood vacancy rates compared to men, non-Hispanic White, and suburban residents; second, residents who perceived property crime and violent crime as equally problematic had perceptions of higher vacancy rates than those who perceived property crime or violent crime as more of a problem; third, the perception of higher overall crime in the neighborhood the more likely residents were to have perceptions of higher vacancy rates; fourth, resident perceptions of crime as increasing over time did not predict perceptions of neighborhood vacancy rates. Our findings advance research on the subjectivity and perceptual nature of physical disorder and problematize crime-disorder assumptions embraced by the broken windows theory.

• Cannon, C. E. B., Gotham, K. F., Lauve-Moon, K., & Powers, B. (2025). Subjectivities of broken windows: Assessing the relationship among crime perceptions, sociodemographic factors, and built environment on neighborhood vacancy perceptions in New Orleans. Journal of Urban Affairs, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2025.2543313