scholarly journals PREVENTION AMONG HOUSING RESIDENTS: THE UTILITY OF COLLECTIVE EFFICACY AS CRIME INFORMAL SOCIAL CONTROL IN THE CITY OF MAKASSAR

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (01) ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (17) ◽  
pp. 4019-4040 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila Barnhart ◽  
Michael C. Gearhart ◽  
Kathryn Maguire-Jack

Neighborhoods with higher levels of collective efficacy are associated with more favorable family outcomes such as lower teen pregnancy rates and less antisocial behavior among children. Collective efficacy is traditionally measured by combining the constructs of social cohesion and informal social control, yet these two constructs may have unique influences on family outcomes. While prior studies have examined collective efficacy’s factor structure, there is limited understanding of this construct among single-mother families, who have unique social and economic characteristics. In this exploratory study, we tested a single-factor model and two-factor model separating social cohesion and informal social control to examine the underlying factor structure of collective efficacy with a diverse sample of 2,084 unmarried mothers who participated in the third wave in-home survey of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study. Results support that informal social control and social cohesion were best modeled as two distinct, but related, constructs.


Urban Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (11) ◽  
pp. 2372-2390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Corcoran ◽  
Renee Zahnow ◽  
Rebecca Wickes ◽  
John Hipp

This paper explores the association between neighbourhood land use features and informal social control. More specifically, we examine the extent to which such features in combination with the socio-demographic context of the neighbourhood facilitate or impede collective efficacy and local civic actions. We achieve this through spatially integrating data from the census, topographic databases and a 2012 survey of 4132 residents from 148 neighbourhoods in Brisbane, Australia. The study creates a new classification of a neighbourhood’s physical environment by creating novel categories of land use features that depict social conduits, social holes and social wedges. Social conduits are features of the neighbourhood that facilitate interaction between individuals, social holes are land uses that create situations where there is no occupancy, and social wedges are features that carve up neighbourhoods. We find some evidence to suggest that residents’ reports of collective efficacy are higher in neighbourhoods with a greater density of social conduits. Density of social conduits is also positively associated with local civic action. However, in neighbourhoods with more greenspace, residents are less likely to engage in local civic actions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 237802311876953 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Hipp ◽  
Seth A. Williams ◽  
Adam Boessen

Whereas existing research typically treats variability in residents’ reports of collective efficacy and neighboring as measurement error, the authors consider such variability as of substantive interest in itself. This variability may indicate disagreement among residents with implications for the neighborhood collectivity. The authors propose using a general measure of social distance based on several social dimensions (rather than measures based on a single dimension such as racial/ethnic heterogeneity or income inequality) to help understand this variability in assessments. The authors use data from wave I (2001) of the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey ( n = 3,570) to aggregate respondents into egohoods of two different sizes: quarter-mile and half-mile radii. Consistent with expectations, neighborhoods with higher levels of general social distance have higher variability in reports of neighboring and the two components of collective efficacy, cohesion and informal social control.


2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross L. Matsueda ◽  
Kevin M. Drakulich

This article specifies a multilevel measurement model for survey response when data are nested. The model includes a test–retest model of reliability, a confirmatory factor model of interitem reliability with item-specific bias effects, an individual-level model of the biasing effects due to respondent characteristics, and a neighborhood-level model of construct validity. We apply this model for measuring informal social control within collective efficacy theory. Estimating the model on 3,260 respondents nested within 123 Seattle neighborhoods, we find that measures of informal control show reasonable test–retest and interitem reliability. We find support for the hypothesis that respondents’ assessments of whether their neighbors would intervene in specific child deviant acts are related to whether they have observed such acts in the past, which is consistent with a cognitive model of survey response. Finally, we find that, when proper measurement models are not used, the effects of some neighborhood covariates on informal control are biased upward and the effect of informal social control on violence is biased downward.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles C. Lanfear ◽  
Ross L. Matsueda ◽  
Lindsey R. Beach

An important criminological controversy concerns the proper causal relationships between disorder, informal social control, and crime. The broken windows thesis posits that neighborhood disorder increases crime directly and indirectly by undermining neighborhood informal social control. Theories of collective efficacy argue that the association between neighborhood disorder and crime is spurious because of the confounding variable informal social control. We review the recent empirical research on this question, which uses disparate methods, including field experiments and different models for observational data. To evaluate the causal claims made in these studies, we use a potential outcomes framework of causality. We conclude that, although there is some evidence for both broken windows and informal control theories, there is little consensus in the present research literature. Furthermore, at present, most studies do not establish causality in a strong way.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-127
Author(s):  
Svetlana Ristović

According to the average age of the population, Serbia is one of the oldest countries in the world, which results in increasing problems characteristic for the elderly population.One of them is the endangerment of the elderly by crime. In practice, not enough attention is paid to this issue, nor it is recognized as special and urgent, although due to the current number, and especially growing elderly population, their security problems will be greater and more present in society. Considering that elderly people a particularly vulnerable and discriminated category of the population, it is necessary to devise an adequate safety policy and establish an appropriate system of their protection. Community policing is recognized as a model of policing that can meet these requirements and adapt to the security needs of the elderly. This is because this concept is based on partnership with citizens and problem-oriented work. The police shouldbe open to community representatives pointing out their needs and highlighting security priorities, and the police can identify problems with them and initiate mechanisms for joint action. Community policing is proactive policing in which formal and informal social control are mutually reinforcing one another.The paper presents the most significant findings on endangerment by crime of the elderly aged 60 and over in the city of Belgrade from 2015 to 2019., in terms of: types of criminal offences, time, place, perpetrators and means of execution, as well as injured parties by gender. Also, the paper will show the organizational, functional and other advantages of community policing concept in relation to the traditional way of policing and try to answer whether its implementation can improve the safety of the elderly or adjust its operation to the security needs of this population


Author(s):  
Liliana Manzano ◽  
Alejandra Mohor ◽  
Williams Jiménez

This chapter tests the collective efficacy theory by examining the influence of household and neighborhood vulnerability, as well as organizational and community mechanisms, on the victimization risk for violent crime in poor neighborhoods of Bogotá (Colombia), Lima (Peru), and Santiago (Chile.) To test the theory, the authors apply a random “Survey on Violence in Neighborhoods” in each of the cities. They confirmed that structural factors such as social vulnerability increase the risk of violent victimization, whereas neighborhood attachment and social cohesion are mediating factors that are key to decreasing said risks. However, the influence of neighborhood residential stability and informal social control has not been verified, and, hence, the collective efficacy theory cannot be confirmed for the neighborhoods included in this study.


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