Social Disorganization Revisited: Mapping the Recent Immigration and Black Homicide Relationship in Northern Miami

Abstract This critical case study assesses the utility of spatial analysis based on maps rather than statistics for evaluating a fundamental premise of the social disorganization perspective: that immigration and ethnic heterogeneity weaken social control and increase community levels of crime. We investigate the relationship between the most recent wave of immigration and community levels of black homicide in the northern part of the city of Miami, an area that has received a large number of recent arrivals from Haiti and contains an established African American community. While quantitative methods have been used to explore this issue as part of an ongoing city-wide analysis, the current focus is on visual representations of the immigration/homicide linkage in the subsection of the city where the theoretically important target populations of African Americans and Haitians reside. Key findings are consistent with previous quantitative analyses that have demonstrated that immigration is not generally associated with higher community levels of homicide. These results call into question basic tenets of the social disorganization perspective while lending support to the concentrated disadvantage and immigration revitalization perspectives.