| Abstrakt: |
Collective efficacy has long been considered a key factor in the deterrence of neighborhood violence. Buttressed by social disorganization theory, collective efficacy came with the premise of Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls (1997) that when people in neighborhoods shared mutual trust and support, they had a foundation for binding together to informally control deviant and criminal behavior. Moreover, collective efficacy creates an expectation of behavior that resident's share that predisposes them to intervene to deter criminal behavior. Although the empirical research paints an overwhelmingly positive picture of the moderating effect of collective efficacy in violent neighborhoods, the exclusion of the socio-historical context of the neighborhood makes the picture somewhat distorted. The relationship between neighborhood violence, socio-historical context, and collective efficacy has yet to be examined. This paper examines how the socio-historical context of neighborhoods influences expectations of collective behavior and subsequently, collective efficacy in violent neighborhoods. Moreover, traditional approaches to the measurement of collective efficacy may be missing key components to accurately measure the neighborhoods' belief in their ability to succeed in deterring crime in current times. We argue that valuable information is lost in the way in which collective efficacy is operationalized and whether refinements to the survey instruments are warranted. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
