Citizenship and security in Chile: Reviewing the role of segregation in the causes of crime in large cities

Abstract

The literature on the causes of urban insecurity propose several explanations (unemployment and poverty, marginalization of youth, community disintegration, urban design, and lack of public space) and suggest that the most important preventative policies are economic growth and employment, community development, and local interventions in degraded spaces. This article discusses the problem of residential segregation in poor urban areas as an important mechanism in the causes of crime and forms a central part of the socio-physical recuperation of excluded urban sectors. First, we analyze the association between indices of socio-economic segregation for major Chilean cities using 2002 census data at the census tract level and reports of socially relevant crimes at the city level. Second, we analyze residential satisfaction data from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to study the perception of insecurity near public housing projects by different age groups, especially between youth and older adults.