Black Ghetto Diversity and Anomie: A Sociopolitical View

On the basis of responses to two "anomie" scales across different black neighborhoods, this study reports findings compatible with the viewpoint that the American black urban ghettos harbor a rich variety of subculturally distinct residential areas. More specifically, it suggests that sociopolitical variables which highlight the relationship between neighborhoods and the structures of power in the city are a more important source of subcultural differences between black residential areas than are variables derived from census data such as rate of racial turnover.