Show Way To Decrease City Does a crime-ridden urban section get that way because the poor people who live there care less about order and safety than do the residents of more affluent standards do not differ from neighborhood to it is their ability to enforce standards that sayd Todd R. Risley or the Living Environments Group at the University of Because environmental Influences are important to mental health and the National Institute of Mental a part of HEW's Drug and Mental Health has supported research by Risley's group In a public housing project for families on welfare in a low- income area of a Midwestern WHEN discussion of the housing development's problems it became clear that the residents were concerned about the same problems as those of concern to any Protecting reducing improving and ensuring particularly of THE OVERALL problem appeared to be that the housing project residents did not think of themselves as belonging to a Where there is no there can be no community-wide standard of acceptable behavior for adults to follow and children to imitate and no community social pressure to deter those who might commit crimes or other antisocial SOME investigators suggest that lack of in heavily populated urban areas may be associated with such community problems as and even citizen-police conflicts that arise when the police are called on to intervene in minor disputes which the residents of true communities would ordinarily handle on their The housing project residents were given guidance which helped them form a tenants' agree upon desired standards of set up a security and engage in other activities which resulted in substantial improvement in their living |