Uncovering levels of community trust, fear of crime, and police-community relations in Baltimore City.

• In Event: Policies, Threat, and Communities

Abstract

In neighborhoods, the shared willingness of local residents to intervene for the common good depends on conditions of cohesion and mutual trust among neighbors. Referred to as the collective efficacy theory, strong neighborhood cohesion and trust can impact the control of crime and deviance (Sampson, Morenoff, & Earls, 1999). Equally important in neighborhoods is how citizens view police services and interactions. Research often finds that citizens with positive views towards law enforcement are more likely to trust the police, report crime, and informally exert social control (Nix, Wolfe, Rojek, & Kaminski, 2015; Ren, Cao, Lovrich, & Gaffney, 2005; Taylor, 2005). To measure some of these concepts, a 64 item neighborhood survey was administered in a high-crime neighborhood in Baltimore. The first wave of the survey was administered in 2015, and the second wave will be administered in summer of 2016. This paper will present the results and limitations from the survey.

Author

• Andrea Cantora, University of Baltimore