Are Abandoned Houses Really Abandoned? How Blight Facilitates Youth Delinquency through the Use of ‘Trap Houses'
Nationally, between 2000 and 2010, there was a 51% increase in the number of vacant properties from 7 million to over 10 million. The economic downturn and foreclosure crisis exacerbated the decline of already disinvested urban neighborhoods when the problem (and the resources to address the problem) spread into outer ring suburbs. Though housing vacancy is increasingly affecting all areas of the country, the highest concentrations of housing vacancy and its correlates remain disproportionately located in disadvantaged, minority neighborhoods. Abandoned housing is associated with a number of negative outcomes among youth, including higher rates of delinquency, violence, drug use and sales, and externalizing behaviors.
This study aimed to understand, from the perspective of youth in a Southwestern Pennsylvania neighborhood with high levels of housing vacancy, youth perceptions of the effects of vacant properties on their own well-being and that of the community. A second aim was to unpack how vacant housing relates to outcomes like youth delinquency and risk behavior.
Methods: I used a mixed methods community based participatory research approach that included participatory photo mapping, a method that combines photography, youth-led neighborhood tours, and advocacy (n=10); in depth interviews with youth (n=21); and spatial analysis of neighborhood factors using GIS software. I analyzed the qualitative data through an iterative process of coding and memo writing to identify key themes. The GIS data were analyzed using kernel density analysis and chloropleth mapping. I then integrated the data for analysis utilizing grounded visualization, an approach that combines elements of grounded theory, a traditional qualitative analysis approach, with geovisualization, the visual representation and analysis of geographic data.
Results: Youth provided detailed descriptions of how abandoned houses facilitate youth delinquency, crime, and community decline through their use as “trap houses” or “traps.” Youth defined a trap house as an abandoned house used by young men as a sheltered place to hang out, hustle (sell drugs), and meet females. Youths’ use of trap houses ranges from developmentally normative teenage activities like gathering with peers to riskier behaviors (experimentation with sex and drugs) and eventually to crime and delinquency through the drug trade. Traps provide a sheltered space, out of the public eye and away from parental supervision, to pursue these types of activities. In the neighborhood where this study took place, vacant houses are so numerous that youth take them over on a block by block basis, contributing to inter-group rivalry and violence.
Implications: This study addresses an important gap in neighborhood effects research by illustrating how abandoned houses facilitate delinquency and risk behaviors among youth. The youth-led approach fits within the strengths perspective common to social work practitioners and academics and allowed for a rich interpretation of the abandoned property phenomenon, as it is experienced by youth. Further, youths’ unique knowledge of neighborhood processes could provide avenues for important future research into delinquency and risk behaviors.