Place management in neighborhood context: an analysis of crime at apartments in Cincinnati

The present study explores the importance of apartment management decisions for crime counts at apartments, and estimates whether the associations between these management decisions and crime vary according to neighborhood context. These issues are explored through multilevel Poisson-based regression modeling of manager survey data from a Cincinnati-based sample of 238 apartments nested within 29 neighborhoods. Results indicate that place management decisions were not, on average, associated with less crime at apartments. However, numerous management variables showed significantly different associations with crime at varying levels of neighborhood disadvantage. The results reinforce the propositions of multilevel opportunity theory suggesting that place management is likely to have different effects based on the broader neighborhood context. Multi-faceted approaches to place management in disadvantaged contexts are suggested.