If you worry that your neighbourhood is going downhill, there could be a way to spot the signs before it happens. You might unwittingly be living in an area designed to foster crime, deprivation and ghettoisation, according to two mathematicians who have developed a method to spot hidden areas of geographical isolation in the urban landscape.
Many neighbourhoods are cut off from other parts of the city by poor transport links and haphazard urban planning, which can often lead to social ills. “Geographical isolation is a prime cause of social deprivation, economic inactivity and crime,” says Dimitry Volchenkov at the…
