Residential Redlining, Immigration, and Lethal Violence: Building on Du Bois's Perspective

W.E.B. Du Bois argued that a focus on the opportunity structure available in a particular area was key to understanding why negative outcomes are more prevalent in some areas than others. We argue that the practice of residential redlining-discriminatory lending practices of the early 20th century-fundamentally altered the opportunities for conventional success present in neighborhoods thought to be the “riskiest.” Scholarship indicates that formerly redlined areas are characterized by significantly higher levels of community and health-related outcomes, including levels of firearm violence and homicide. Using longitudinal analyses and consistently defined communities in Miami, Florida, between 1970 and 2010, we assess the effects of residential redlining on lethal violence. Our models include measures of immigration as a control for potentially mitigating influences on the effect of redlining. Consistent with prior research, our results indicate that levels of lethal violence are associated with a community having been redlined. Results also indicate that the observed “buffering” effect of immigration has a moderating influence on the effect of residential redlining, offering strong, though indirect, support for the immigration revitalization hypothesis.