Essay Prompt: What is collective efficacy theory and how does it differ from the systemic model of informal social control as an explanation for community rates of crime? Is collective efficacy theory supported?
Defined by Sampson, Raudenbush and Earls (1997), collective efficacy is “social cohesion among neighbors combined with their willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good (p.918).” As Sampson (2005) further illustrated in another article, social cohesion is a particular kind of social structure with the emphasis on working trust and mutual support. Moreover, the “willingness” there can also be described as the “culturally tinged dimension of shared expectations for social control (p. 152).” Unlike systemic social disorgnization model, which mostly emphasizes solely on social ties as one of the social structural causes, collective efficacy theory started to …show more content…
Authors used the same 1995 survey data and same study region while with different violence measures. Besides the official homicide data provided by the Chicago Police Department, homicide victimization in 1996 derived from death records was selected as well. By using the hierarchical generalized linear model, they concluded that collective efficacy, spatial proximity, and neighborhood inequality (which was measured by indices of concentrated disadvantage and concentrated extremes) showed most consistent effects on homicide rates. Same authors also analyzed 4 surveys finished during 1995 to 2002, and found out that Blacks were more likely to live in the neighborhoods which had concentrated disadvantages, high legal/moral cynicism, and low collective efficacy, which would more likely to make Blacks to be exposed to the crime and violence (Sampson, Morenoff and Raudenbush, 2005). These two studies also approved the intervening effect of collective efficacy on
Defined by Sampson, Raudenbush and Earls (1997), collective efficacy is “social cohesion among neighbors combined with their willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good (p.918).” As Sampson (2005) further illustrated in another article, social cohesion is a particular kind of social structure with the emphasis on working trust and mutual support. Moreover, the “willingness” there can also be described as the “culturally tinged dimension of shared expectations for social control (p. 152).” Unlike systemic social disorgnization model, which mostly emphasizes solely on social ties as one of the social structural causes, collective efficacy theory started to …show more content…
Authors used the same 1995 survey data and same study region while with different violence measures. Besides the official homicide data provided by the Chicago Police Department, homicide victimization in 1996 derived from death records was selected as well. By using the hierarchical generalized linear model, they concluded that collective efficacy, spatial proximity, and neighborhood inequality (which was measured by indices of concentrated disadvantage and concentrated extremes) showed most consistent effects on homicide rates. Same authors also analyzed 4 surveys finished during 1995 to 2002, and found out that Blacks were more likely to live in the neighborhoods which had concentrated disadvantages, high legal/moral cynicism, and low collective efficacy, which would more likely to make Blacks to be exposed to the crime and violence (Sampson, Morenoff and Raudenbush, 2005). These two studies also approved the intervening effect of collective efficacy on