Understanding the Emergence and Persistence of Concentrated Urban Poverty

Social scientists have rightly devoted considerable attention to concentrated poverty because it magnifies the problems associated with poverty in general: joblessness, crime, delinquency, drug trafficking, family breakups, and poor “social outcomes” like school performance. Neighborhoods of highly concentrated poverty are seen as dangerous, and therefore they become isolated, socially and economically, as people go out of their way to avoid them. ¹