Residents of redlined communities experience higher rates of violence, according to new study from Alexander Testa, PhD

A new study conducted by Alexander Testa, PhD, assistant professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, found that residents of historically redlined communities have a higher probability of experiencing violent crimes such as assault, robbery, and gun violence.

Funded through a pilot grant from the Network on Life Course and Health Dynamics and Disparities in 21st Century America and published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the study demonstrates the persistent impact of redlining, a discriminatory practice from the New Deal era.

Testa and his co-authors conducted the study using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, which was collected by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Carolina Population Center. The unique project was a massive undertaking that tracked thousands of individuals over 30 years, from adolescence in 1994 to adulthood in 2018, creating an invaluable treasure trove of data for researchers that documents life for young people in the U.S.

“Most research on the relationship between redlining and violence is what we call cross-sectional data, a snapshot, that basically says, ‘in this city during this one year, there were this many violent crimes,’” Testa said. “But this data allowed us to actually see over multiple points of an individual’s life when they moved in and out of communities, as people do, how their probability of being the victim of a violent event changed based on where they were geographically living and if they were living in a redlined or non-redlined area.”

Redlining was a practice that originated in the 1930s as part of the New Deal, which created the Homeowners Loan Corporation (HOLC) in an effort to help Americans become homeowners. HOLC created maps that graded neighborhoods from A (green) to D (red), determining the perceived risk of investing in those areas.

“So, if you lived in a green, or an A-grade community, you were basically guaranteed a mortgage,” Testa said. “But if you lived in a redlined community, you were basically not going to get a mortgage because it was deemed too risky. Just so happens that those redlined communities were disproportionately communities of color, and those green lined communities were disproportionately white communities.”

Testa said the lack of investment in communities of color, which began almost a hundred years ago, has persisted and continues to affect redlined areas in cities throughout the U.S. to this day.

“We can see the ripple effects over time, because it promoted more resources, homeownership and wealth in white communities, and exacerbated the lack of resources and wealth development in black communities,” Testa said. “The income gap between black and white residents is large, but the wealth gap is substantially larger, because one of the main ways that wealth is transferred between generations is homeownership.”

The study found that residents of historically redlined communities have a 4.8 percent higher probability on average of violent victimization.

“We can never know your exact probability of being a victim of violence,” Testa said. “But everybody has some probability, and it's higher for some than others based on a variety of characteristics, and one of those characteristics is where you live.”

This increased risk persists even when individuals move in and out of these neighborhoods throughout their lives. For instance, someone living in a redlined area at age 18 and moving to a non-redlined area at age 22 would still face a higher risk of violence if they returned to a redlined area later in life.

Testa said that increased risk might sound small, but it can significantly impact the lives of the people who live in those neighborhoods or choose to move to them.

“We're not talking about minor violent crimes,” Testa said. “We're talking about being assaulted, shot, stabbed, robbed with a weapon. So, if your realtor said you’d have a 4 percent higher probability of being the victim of an extremely violent crime if you live in this community versus that community, would that factor into your decision to buy a house there? Because it would factor into my decision.”

Testa said it’s likely that several environmental factors contribute to the higher crime rates in redlined communities, including the fact that these areas have historically been underfunded and neglected, resulting in poor infrastructure and inadequate public services. Key deterrents of crime, such as street lighting, parks, and public transportation, are often lacking, Testa said, and a scarcity of resources can create environments where crime can thrive.

Testa said these findings are further confirmation of the long-lasting and detrimental impact of discriminatory policies on certain communities. He and his co-authors are now applying for another grant that will allow them to link together an even larger and more robust collection of data to account for more features of these neighborhoods.

“Despite it occurring almost a century ago, redlining has not really been thoroughly researched until the last couple of years,” Testa said. “We feel like we've tapped into a really important historical policy that continues to influence contemporary American life, and we want to better understand it and dig deeper.”

As a researcher and data collector, Testa said he’s not putting forth any policy solutions for redlined communities, but said past research indicates it will be a long road to healing the damage of redlining.

“The ripple effects of redlining took place over the course of decades, and it is not easy to change that course with investment over a couple of years,” Testa said. “Through sustained investment over the coming decades, you can hopefully reverse the tides, but it needs to be carefully thought-out investments with community input, ensuring that it maintains the cultural presence of the community and allows residents to continue to thrive there.”