About the research
As Britain becomes a more multi-cultural society, so too are its local communities. As ethnic diversity in towns, villages and cities increases, debates occur about the possible effect this could have on people’s perception of their local area. This was the subject of research led by academics from the Universities of Portsmouth and Southampton which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Political scientists have suggested that increased ethnic diversity causes detrimental effects to local communities. The researchers aimed to investigate whether higher levels of ethnic mixing influenced perceptions of neighbourhood trust and cohesion, antisocial behaviour and perceptions of crime. The researchers took other area characteristics into account whilst undertaking this analysis (e.g. multiple deprivation, whether the area was urban or rural and levels of crime).
After analysing data from the British Crime Survey linked to other datasets such as the UK Census and Index of Multiple Deprivation, the researchers did not find a significant relationship between levels of ethnic diversity and people’s perceptions of antisocial behaviour in their local communities. The research also showed that while ethnic mixing was associated with a reduction in social cohesion, trust, and informal social control, there was no link with any one type of ethnic mix in the area. Furthermore, these effects are substantially less than the association with deprivation where there is a strongly negative association with these aspects of community.
Finally they found that there was no negative relationship with levels of diversity and perceptions of crime and, in fact, those in highly diverse areas were less pessimistic about national crime trends.
Methodology
The 2006-2007 sweep of the BCS was linked to other data including data from the UK Census (2001) on ethnic mixing, the Indices of Deprivation (2007) and the cross-government rural and urban area classification. The project used the Home Office’s trial of attaching UK Census area codes to the respondent data from the BCS to facilitate these linkages.
In order to investigate their research goals the researchers used sets of multilevel models which combined the characteristics of the respondents and the types of places they live in to better understand how perceptions of neighbourhood are associated with ethnic mixing, deprivation and whether an area is urban or rural.
Publications
Mohan, J., Twigg, L., and Taylor, J. (2011) ‘Mind the double gap: using multivariate modelling to investigate public perceptions of crime trends’, The British Journal of Criminology, 51(6), pp. 1035-1053. doi: 10.1093/bjc/azr041 Retrieved 4 September 2013 from http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/51/6/1035.full.pdf+html
Twigg, L., Taylor, J., and Mohan, J. (2010) ‘Diversity or disadvantage? Putnam, Goodhart, ethnic heterogeneity, and collective efficacy’, Environment and Planning A, 26(6), pp. 1421-1438. doi: 10.1068/a42287 Retrieved 27 November 2025 from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a42287
Taylor, J., Twigg, L., and Mohan, J. (2010) ‘Investigating perceptions of antisocial behaviour and neighbourhood ethnic heterogeneity in the British Crime Survey’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 35(1), pp. 59-75. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-5661.2009.00365.x
Taylor, J., Twigg, L., and Mohan, J. (2010) ‘Exploring the links between population heterogeneity and perceptions of social cohesion in England’ in J. Stilwell and M. van Ham (eds.) Understanding Population Trends and Processes, vol. 3, Ethnicity and Integration, Springer.