Perceptions of Place: Neighbourhood Social Tension, Marginalisation, and the Endorsement of Violence in Four European Countries

Do people become more willing to accept violence simply because of where they live? Using survey data from over 5000 residents across nineteen cities in Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway, this study finds that the perceived social climate of a neighbourhood, that is how much tension people sense between ethnic and religious groups, and how widespread they believe local problems are, shapes willingness to endorse violence even after accounting for personal grievance, humiliation, anxiety, and general pessimism. The effect holds in all four countries, and while cities whose residents collectively perceive more tension also show somewhat higher support for violence, this pattern is promising but not yet statistically proven because only nineteen cities were studied. The research also reveals that feeling marginalised strongly predicts support for violence among younger and middle-aged adults but fades by roughly half after age forty eight, whereas the neighbourhood climate effect remains steady across the entire life course. Notably, the neighbourhood pathway is more than twice as strong among Muslim residents, even though Muslims are no more likely to endorse violence overall, suggesting that policies concentrating surveillance on Muslim communities while neglecting the urban conditions they experience are misaligned with the evidence. Tests of possible explanations, such as distrust of local institutions, weakened community bonds, or feeling threatened by other groups, explain only a small fraction of the link, leaving most of it unresolved and pointing to the need for better measures of how neighbourhoods shape social norms. The core message is that preventing the attitudinal roots of violence is not only a policing matter; it is also a question of urban investment, namely decent housing, public spaces, community institutions, and inclusive governance, because what our neighbourhoods tell us daily about trust, conflict, and belonging shapes whether we come to regard violence as acceptable.