Contact: Anthony Robbins, Editor
     617-565-1442
     arobbins@nlm.nih.gov
     Public Health Reports--U.S. Public Health Service
     
     Pockets Of Concentrated Poverty Have More Domestic Violence
     
     Appearing in the March/April 1997 issue of Public Health Reports
     
     Poor neighborhoods often are seen as having the most perpetrators
     of violent crime, but they also have the most victims, especially
     when it comes to personal crimes between "intimates," say
     researchers. They base their findings on a study of Duval County,
     Florida, whose homicide rate is among the highest in the country.
     Using 1992 police reports of incidents of assaultive violence, they
     found that the rate of incidents involving husbands, wives,
     girlfriends, and boyfriends was nine times higher in neighborhoods
     of concentrated poverty than in other areas; the rate involving
     friends and acquaintances was also nine times higher; between
     strangers was six times higher.
     
     Compared to other neighborhoods, those with a concentration of
     people living in poverty are characterized by fewer prospects for
     employment, less access to public services, fewer opportunities for
     educational advancement, lower real estate values. They are also
     likely to have fewer formal (police protection) or informal
     (community crime prevention strategies) social controls available.
     
     While assaultive violence among intimates can be observed among all
     socioeconomic groups, it is not evenly distributed. This study
     suggests that prevention resources would best be targeted to the
     poorest neighborhoods to maximize the impact.
     
     CONTACT: Rebecca Miles-Doan, PhD, Center for the Study of
     Population, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Florida
     State University; tel. 904-644-7102; fax 904-644-8818; e-mail .
     
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	This is the way it is now; but soon they will be taking the 
violence to the richer neighbourhoods.  Home invasions are going up.  It 
doesn't even seem to matter if you live in a walled community with 
guards.  People who can afford it are imprisoning themselves and to no 
avail.  There is a new anger in the streets. 

We need to deal with poverty now, before it is too late.  Welfare won't 
do it anymore.  A Guaranteed Adequate Income for everyone is the only 
answer I can see.

Robert