Coercive Sexual Environments: What MTO Tells Us about Neighborhoods and Sexual Safety

AbstractEarlier research on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Moving to Opportunity (MTO) for Fair Housing Demonstration identified sexual environments as an important dimension of neighborhood quality for young people. The study presented in this article uses survey data and new indepth interviews with young women in MTO households to present the perspectives of women experiencing harassment in their neighborhoods and to deepen our understanding of how harassment relates to other aspects of their lives. Indepth interview respondents (N = 40) describe what it is like to live with chronic violence and predatory threats and how the violence and threats constrain community life. Women in these communities describe daily life with catcalls, grabbing, sexually suggestive language, and violence toward women and even very young girls. Our nonexperimental analysis of girls in the MTO Final Impacts Evaluation survey data (N = 2,183) supports a link between chronic violence and disadvantage and the existence of a coercive sexual environment (CSE) that further undermines the well-being of women and girls. We use multivariate ordinary least squares regression to identify contextual, social and emotional, and economic and demographic factors that are correlated with reported harassment. We observe a positive, statistically significant relationship between reported harassment and indicators of chronic neighborhood disadvantage. We argue that policy interventions aimed at improving the lives of young women in low-income neighborhoods need to identify and address CSEs.IntroductionIf I went to a neighborhood where men didn't treat females disrespectful, I would be like, "Wow, are you serious? " Like, you know, I would think that that was foreign because I'm so used to, you know, something else. When something greater comes it would just be like real foreign to me. So, I believe growing up in a different situation and environment, it affects who you become. -Kenesha, youth interviewYoung women like Kenesha, growing up in low-income, racially segregated, urban communities, view the world through a lens shaped by decades of poverty and racism. The risks for youth of growing up in concentrated poverty and disadvantage are well documented: developmental and cognitive delays; poor physical and mental health; and the likelihood of dropping out of school, engaging in risky sexual behavior, and becoming involved in delinquent and criminal activities (Brooks-Gunn and Duncan, 1997; Ellen and Turner, 1997; Leventhal and Brooks-Gunn, 2004; Sampson, 2012; Sampson, Morenoff, and Gannon-Rowley, 2002; Sampson, Sharkey, and Raudenbush, 2008; Wodtke, Harding, and Elwert, 2011). In many of these neighborhoods, inadequate or nonexistent local institutions, such as poorly performing schools, inadequate health care, and a weak labor market, compound negative outcomes. Concentrated disadvantage contributes to lowered expectations in many areas (Anderson, 1991; Edin and Kefalas, 2005), including respect. As Kenesha suggests, it is more than the challenges and risks young girls face; it is an environment of concentrated and chronic disadvantage-"it affects who you become. "Neighborhoods mired in chronic disadvantage suffer a range of social ills, including high rates of violent crime, social disorder, and domestic violence (Kawachi, Kennedy, and Wilkinson, 1999; Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls, 1997). In these disadvantaged communities, chronic violence is pervasive, both within and outside the home (Benson and Fox, 2004; Hannon, 2005), both stemming from and helping to perpetuate low levels of collective efficacy; that is, "social cohesion among neighbors combined with their willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good" (Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls, 1997: 918). In the Urban Institute's previous work, we have theorized that when disadvantage and violence are great and collective efficacy and social control are minimal, a gender-specific neighborhood mechanism can emerge that has differential effects on male and female youth. …