Perceptions of crime in certain neighborhoods may be due to the presence of blacks, a study by two UW-Madison researchers reported.

The study was conducted by sociology assistant professor Lincoln Quillian and graduate student Devah Pager and revealed residents in Chicago, Seattle and Baltimore were strongly influenced by the racial composition of their neighborhood in judging the level of crime.

This is the first study to reveal white perceptions about blacks, Quillian said.

“The significance of this study is that it is the first study to show that white perceptions associating black neighbors with higher crime do not merely reflect actual crime but result from an overestimation of the association between race and crime,” Quillian said.

In the study, residents were asked to rate the level of crime in their neighborhoods. This information was then compared to neighborhood census data and police reports.

Even if the crime rate is low in a certain neighborhood the study reported residents perceive there to be a higher crime rate when young black men live in the area. The percentage of young black men is more related than actual crime rates as reported by police to perceptions of crime.

Despite higher perceptions of crime rates, actual crime rates do not correlate with the presence of young black men.

The results are indicative of a stereotype of blacks and crime Pager said.

“These results demonstrate that strong stereotypes people have about blacks and crime,” Pager said. “People automatically assume that if there are young black men around, they must be engaged in crime. It’s just not true.”

The authors of the study said the conclusions of their research have implications for residential segregation. They said whites claim to move out of integrated or black neighborhoods not because of race but because they perceive there is a higher level of crime. The study’s conclusions show perceptions are racially motivated leading the authors to question whether neighborhood integration can be achieved without a significant weakening of stereotypes.

“We believe that media images associating blacks with crime perpetuates distorted images,” Pager said. “Unless we recognize that black criminals represent only a small proportion of the overall black population, whites will continue to feel threatened by black neighbors, and they will continue to flee from integrated neighborhoods.”