Collective Efficacy and Perceptions of Efficacy: Understanding the Micro and Macro Dimensions of Neighborhood Social Control

• In Event: Communities and Place: Perceptions and Sources of Collective Efficacy

Abstract

This study seeks to contribute to communities and crime research by analyzing the mechanisms through which collective efficacy influences crime. In particular, it examines the differential role of individual-level perceptions of collective efficacy and neighborhood levels of collective efficacy on the social disorganization-crime link. Combining data from two different sources within the PHDCN, the Community Survey and the Life Cohort Study, our study shows that youths’ individual-level perceptions of collective efficacy are associated with neighborhood structural characteristics and the level of neighborhood collective efficacy.  However, 96% of the variance of youths’ perceptions of collective efficacy occurs within neighborhoods. We also find that youths who perceive lower levels of collective efficacy within their neighborhoods exhibit significantly higher levels of violent offending than youths with high perceptions of collective efficacy. Surprisingly, our analysis does not reveal a significant association between neighborhood levels of collective efficacy and youth violent offending. Our research thus suggests that scholars need to expand upon their conceptualization of collective efficacy and seek a more nuanced understanding of the micro and macro level sources of collective efficacy and the individual and neighborhood level mechanisms through which collective efficacy influences crime.

Authors

• Cecilia Chouhy, Florida State University

• James Unnever, University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee