Socio-Spatial Aspects of Violence with an Ethnic-Cultural Background

Abstract

In the framework of a broad survey conducted in the cities of Duisburg, Wuppertal and Münster 2,536 adolescents were interviewed, in order to analyse the potential for ethnic-cultural conflict as well as the background of ethnic-cultural violence. This article focuses on two socio-spatial aspects (social atmosphere and intergroup relationships in the neighbourhood) and their connectedness with ethnic-cultural violence in the three cities. The findings show, first, that there is no clear correspondence between the percentage of foreigners in a neighbourhood and a negative assessment of the two socio-spatial aspects and, second, that a correlation exists between the use of ethnic-cultural violence on the part of adolescents and a significantly more negative assessment of the socio-spatial aspects.