ABSTRACT
This chapter recounts different perspectives on the origins of incivilities. In general, four different perspectives on the origins of incivilities appear in the literature: historical focusing on legal shifts, structural, racial, and random urban dynamics. The courts are largely to blame, according to Kelling and Coles's presentation of the historical legal perspective on increasing incivilities. Historical connections between social incivilities and urban neighborhood racial composition can be traced at least to the late nineteenth century. Racial composition represents a key element in community structure. One temporal perspective looks at changes occurring simultaneously. The chapter examines residents' changing perceptions of incivilities. Numerous investigations into incivilities and their consequences have relied on residents' reports of local conditions. The chapter looks at hierarchical linear models and hierarchical generalized linear models which predict changes in total incivilities. It examines more specific changes in perceived social and perceived physical incivilities. Social incivilities were most likely to intensify in neighborhoods with lower initial socioeconomic status.
