Police and Collective Efficacy in the Heartland

• In Event: Posters I

Abstract

Collective efficacy is one of the cornerstones of communities and crime research. As such, it is important to understand how the police and crime affect individual perceptions of collective efficacy. Using data from a medium-sized city in Illinois, a hierarchical generalized linear model was ran to determine what factors best predicted how individuals would perceive collective efficacy and which of those factors mediated the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and individual perceptions of collective efficacy. The results suggest that when police are extremely capable at dealing with crime problems, collective efficacy decreases while fear of being a victim and seeing crime within the community increase collective efficacy. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Author

• Morgan Steele, University of Cincinnati