How Collective is Collective Efficacy? Allowing for Within-neighbourhood Heterogeneity of Variance in Mixed Effects Models

• In Event: Understanding Perceptions: Novel Methodological Approaches

Abstract

There is now strong evidence that collective efficacy plays a key role in shaping the patterning of crime and perceptions of crime across local areas. Existing studies have generally measured collective efficacy by combining survey respondent ratings of the local area into an overall summary measure for each neighborhood, resulting in a natural focus on variation between neighborhoods. Yet it is theoretically plausible that the degree to which residents agree is not uniform, and might also have important substantive consequences. To allow for disagreement amongst residents, a mixed-effects location scale model is used, with variability within specific neighborhoods modelled simultaneously with variation between neighborhoods. Results confirm that neighbourhoods differ, not just in their overall levels of collective efficacy, but also in the extent that the views of their residents correspond with one another. Furthermore heterogeneity in assessments is consequential, with residents of neighborhoods characterized by more variable collective efficacy assessments expressing more worry about crime victimization, and the overall positive impact of higher average collective efficacy only reducing worry when there is sufficient agreement from residents.

Author

• Ian Brunton-Smith, University of Surrey