Releasing into conflict zones: Exploring the spatial drivers of Urban Insecurity and its impact on the reentry of offenders in New Orlean

The overall goal of the proposed research was to explore the dimensions of Urban Insecurity and to provide policy-makers with insight into the dynamic and complex situations of a vulnerable population living in insecure urban environments. Within development studies, urban insecurity is regarded as the converse of urban security---i.e., reasonable and sustained access to food, shelter, water, employment and personal and community safety. Poor people are disproportionately predisposed to insecure situations as they migrate to, or reside within, urban areas, in order to secure a livelihood, and instead find themselves concentrated in areas of intense poverty, often coupled with social and political marginalization. These areas are also plagued by structural inequity, where large systemic disparities exist, such as access to quality education and medium to high wage job opportunities.;Insecurity both generates, and is generated by, poverty, inequity, crime and violence within affected environments. The overarching goal of this research was to test the underlying presence of varying concentrations of disadvantage, including poverty, crime and violence, on the production of an insecure environment, and, in turn, to examine the impact of such an environment on a vulnerable population. The specific aims of this study were to: 1) explore the drivers of Urban Insecurity, 2) understand the patterns of Urban Insecurity using spatial analysis, and 3) understand the impact of Urban Insecurity on affected individuals, specifically those vulnerable to exposure to varying levels of inequality, poverty, crime (as concentration of illegal activities) and violence (as concentration of crimes involving physical harm). The vulnerable population selected consist of returning offenders who were charged with a drug crime, gun crime or violent crime and were released either into court-mandated probation or released from jail or prison into corrections-mandated Parole supervision. This population is especially sensitive to the presence of Urban Insecurity, as, with the conditions of Probation & Parole (P&P) supervision, they are required to secure stable housing, employment, avoid illegal activities and pay restitution for their crime. This occurs all within the context of returning into the community without financial resources, with historically poor educational attainment and a reputation as a convicted criminal.;Using ecological data from the American Community Survey of the U.S. Census, this research proposed a spatial analysis of three hypothesized drivers of Urban Insecurity: Concentrated Disadvantage, Social Disorganization and Structural Inequality. An Index of Urban Insecurity was developed from indicators known in previous literature to explain these three constructs in order to reflect additional relationships established in Urban Insecurity literature. Several novel indicators related to the three aforementioned constructs were proposed based on the specific historical contexts of New Orleans. The collection of indicators was subjected to a Common Factor Analysis (CFA) followed by internal consistency reliability testing. The spatial patterning of Urban Insecurity was then examined for significant spatial clustering and variability across Orleans Parish Block groups for the City of New Orleans.;P&P supervision is meant to decrease revocation and return to prison by assisting the reentry process with a platform for offender accountability regarding employment, substance abuse and general stability that is believed to prevent the re-commission of crime. The hypothesis of the proposed research was that Urban Insecurity will have a significant impact on the offenders' ability to thrive in a post-release setting, overwhelming the efforts of Probation and Parole supervision. This was tested utilizing the mapped Urban Insecurity Index for a comparison of outcomes important to the reentry process, looking across differing intensities of insecurity at the location of release. Positive reentry outcomes include successful connections to steady living arrangements, continued employment and cessation of drug use and criminal behaviors. Negative reentry outcomes include probation and parole violations, failed drug tests, arrests, being charged with a crime and revocation. Revocation, the primary outcome of interest, will be examined in a multilevel format, as individuals nested within microenvironments, measured by the smallest level of aggregation available through the Census: block groups. Finally, it is hypothesized that Urban Insecurity will have a moderating effect on the factors that affect reentry. Urban Insecurity was presumed to have a negative effect on factors protective to reentry such as PO contacts and employment, and were presumed to have a positive on threatening factors such as drug use and criminal history. The overall premise of this study is that the risks presented in areas of moderately high and high Urban Insecurity will overwhelm both standard and intensive reentry efforts in the prevention of revocation. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).