Nationwide, housing authorities demolish public housing communities and relocate the existing residents in an attempt to create more favorable neighborhood environments and to promote safer and more efficacious social interactions for public housing residents. Yet, studies of public housing relocation do not find strong evidence of beneficial social interaction occurring between relocated residents and new neighbors. Despite increased safety and relative increase in neighborhood economic standing, studies find relocated residents socialize outside of their new neighborhoods or else limit existing neighborhood interactions as compared to living in public housing communities. This raises the question of why relocated residents either do or do not choose to interact with their new neighbors within their new residential settings. In an effort to answer this question, I have conducted a study focused on neighborhood social interactions using public housing residents relocated from six of Atlanta, Georgia’s public housing communities. As a backdrop to the study, I present relevant literature concerning both the study of neighborhoods and the study of prior relocation endeavors. I argue that neighborhoods do provide important social landscapes for attempting to benefit public housing residents, though more research and a different framework of analysis are needed in order to manifest theorized outcomes of relocation for all residents involved. I then employ the use of both quantitative survey data from 248 relocated residents and qualitative in-depth interview data from 40 relocated residents to provide further insight into social interaction patterns after relocation from Atlanta’s public housing. This research finds that prior to relocation residents in public housing communities differed in terms of their ideal zones of action and preferred levels of inclusion and engagement in the neighborhood setting and in terms of their surrounding community scene. By examining these different ideal-types of residents in detail, I argue that prior to moving the residents, a better fit between resident and neighborhood can be constructed by housing authorities such that more beneficial social interaction outcomes can be achieved overall in the relocation process.

Syftet med den här studien är att med kvantitativ metod undersöka om samband föreligger mellan låg socioekonomisk status och förekomst av brott i nära relation i landets kommuner. Regressions- samt geografisk analys används för att studera socioekonomiska faktorers påverkan på frekvensen i antalet anmälda brott i nära relation, samt belysa geografiska variationer i brottsnivå. Resultatet ger stöd för hypotesen samt vad som förväntades utifrån teorin om social desorganisation samt strainteori avseende socioekonomiska faktorers samband med nivåer av våld i nära relation. Vi kan dock inte utesluta vare sig medierande eller modererande faktorer som tidigare forskning visat på. För det krävs vidare forskning. Våld i nära relation skulle alltså, baserat på resultaten, vara mer sannolikt att förekomma i kommuner med högre andel individer med låg socioekonomisk status. Följaktligen bör sannolikt brottspreventiva åtgärder som syftar till att motverka effekterna av låg socioekonomisk status även motverka förekomsten av våld i nära relation. / This study considers the effects of concentrated disadvantage on the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Sweden. The purpose is to quantitatively study the relationship between rates of reported IPV to police. Multiple regression analysis is used to examine the relationship between socioeconomic factors and differences in crime rates among municipalities. Geographical analysis is used to examine variations in crime rates between municipalities. The results seemingly confirms the hypothesis that concentrated disadvantage significantly increases intimate partner violence, as expected from social disorganization and strain theory. However, we can not rule out the possibility of mediating and/or moderating factors as indicated from previous studies abroad. For that, further research needs to be done. Based on the results, municipality representatives should consider crime prevention strategies aimed at decreasing the effects of concentrated disadvantage among residential areas.