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Collective Efficacy and Social Cohesion in Miami-Dade County

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Collective Efficacy and Social Cohesion in Miami-Dade County The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report: Document Title: Neighborhoods and Crime: Collective Efficacy and Social Cohesion in Miami-Dade County Author(s): Craig D. Uchida, Marc L. Swatt, Shellie E. Solomon, Sean Varano Document No.: 245406 Date Received: March 2014 Award Number: 2009-IJ-CX-0039 This report has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice. To provide better customer service, NCJRS has made this Federally- funded grant report available electronically. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Neighborhoods and Crime: Collective Efficacy and Social Cohesion in Miami-Dade County By Craig D. Uchida Marc L. Swatt Shellie E. Solomon Sean Varano With the assistance of: Christine Connor, Jonathan Mash, Corina Putt, W. Riley Waugh, and Robert Adams Final Report Submitted to the National Institute of Justice November 2013 This project was supported by Award No. 2009-IJ-CX-0039 awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U. S. Department of Justice and by funding from The Children’s Trust of Miami–Dade (Contract Number 864-234). The Trust is a dedicated source of revenue established by voter referendum to improve the lives of children and families in Miami- Dade County. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice or The Children's Trust. Justice & Security Strategies, Inc. Tel +1 (301) 438-3132 PO Box 6188 Fax +1 (877) 788-4235 Silver Spring, MD 20916 Email [email protected] Web www.jssinc.org This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements..………………………………………………………… i Chapter I. Introduction………………………………………………………… 1 Defining Collective Efficacy………………………………………….. 1 Research Questions…………………………………………………… 4 The Need for a Psychometric Evaluation of the PHDCN Collective Efficacy Scale…………………………………….. 6 Perceptions of Collective Efficacy, Incivilities, and Fear of Crime………………………………………………………. 8 Use of Neighborhood Resources and Collective Efficacy…………… 12 Local Variation in Neighborhood Functioning………………………. 13 A Guide for the Reader………………………………………………. 15 Chapter II. Methodology of the Project………………………………………. 18 Miami-Dade County, Florida………………………………………… 18 Neighborhoods Examined in the Study……………………………… 19 Resident Surveys…………………………………………………….. 25 Systematic Social Observations……………………………………… 29 Chapter III. Psychometric Properties of the New Collective Efficacy Scale… 32 Abstract……………………………………………………………... 32 Overview…………………………………………………………….. 33 Expanding the Sampson et al. (1997) Scale…………………………. 38 Dimensionality of the Revised Scale………………………………… 40 Item Selection and Scoring Perceptions of Collective Efficacy and Social Cohesion………………………………………….. 59 Differential Item Functioning………………………………………… 71 Conclusions…………………………………………………………… 80 Chapter IV. The Relationships between Perceptions of Collective Efficacy and Social Cohesion and Outcome Variables………………………... 87 Abstract……………………………………………………………… 87 Overview……………………………………………………………… 88 Measures………………………………………………………………. 90 Plan of Analysis………………………………………………………. 97 Results………………………………………………………………… 98 Conclusions…………………………………………………………… 101 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Chapter V. Assessing Heterogeneity in Perceptions of Collective Efficacy and Social Cohesion across Neighborhoods…………………………. 104 Abstract………………………………………………………………. 104 Overview………………………………………………………………. 105 Measurement and Plan of Analysis…………………………………… 107 Results………………………………………………………………… 108 Conclusions…………………………………………………………… 119 Chapter VI. Exploring the Predictors of Perceptions of Collective Efficacy and Perceptions of Social Cohesion…………………………………… 125 Abstract………………………………………………………………. 125 Overview……………………………………………………………… 126 Measures and Plan of Analysis……………………………………….. 127 Results………………………………………………………………… 130 Conclusions…………………………………………………………… 132 Chapter VII. Within Neighborhood Variation in Collective Efficacy and Social Cohesion……………………………………………………… 134 Abstract…………………………………………………………….. 134 Introduction……………………………………………………………. 134 Methods………………………………………………………………… 141 Results…………………………………………………………………. 143 Conclusions……………………………………………………………. 159 Chapter VIII. Conclusions and Discussion for Future Research…………… 163 Summary of Results……………………………………………….. 163 Recommendation for Future Research……………………………. 168 Chapter IX. Conclusions and Discussion for Policy………………………. 183 Policy Implications: Overview……………………………………. 185 Policy Recommendations………………………………………… 189 References………………………………………………………………….. 199 Appendix A. Instrument for Resident Surveys (English and Spanish)…..… 205 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project could not have been developed, implemented, and completed without the assistance of key people in different organizations. First, we would like to thank our funders, The Children’s Trust of Miami-Dade County and the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice for their support both financial and intellectual. At The Trust, Dr. Lisa Pittman gave us extremely useful and helpful advice and guidance throughout the grant period. Importantly, Mr. Modesto “Mo” Abety, Mr. Charles Auslander, and Dr. Lori Hanson saw the value of this research to their constituency – children and families living in Miami-Dade County neighborhoods – and supported the project without hesitation. At the National Institute of Justice, our original managers included Mr. Ronald Wilson and Ms. Cathy Girouard, both of whom recognized that a research project that combined collective efficacy, mapping technology, new analytics, and crime could be done within a large county with a relatively small budget. Mr. Joel Hunt, who took over as program manager mid- project, supported us as well and provided substantive advice as the project came to a close. We also thank the practitioner and technical reviewers of the original draft report as they provided us with important advice in improving this report. We are appreciative of those who worked on this project as consultants, interviewers, and data entry personnel. In particular, we thank Mr. Sampson Annan, whose experience in survey methods, training, and follow-up, is un-matched in the country. He trained all of our interviewers and staff, and provided us with the knowledge to conduct robust surveys. Ms. Antoinette Reimers, who oversaw the interviewers, ensured that the quality of their work was at the highest level. i This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Finally, we thank Miami-Dade County, City of Miami, City of Miami Gardens, and City of Homestead Police Departments, the Miami Dade County Medical Examiner, and the Miami Dade Office of the State Attorney, 11th Judicial Circuit for data and other important information. ii This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION Research examining the linkage between neighborhood characteristics and crime rates has been an area of particular interest to criminology since the pioneering work of Shaw and McKay (1942) and other early social disorganization researchers. A lengthy body of literature has been devoted to understanding the role of neighborhood structural conditions, social functioning, and deleterious conditions including serious violent crime (Bursik & Grasmick, 1993; Messner & Tardiff, 1986; Sampson & Groves, 1989), gang membership (Hill, Howell, Hawkins, & Battin-Pearson, 1999), robbery, drug dealing, and assaults in micro-environments (St. Jean, 2007), school problems (Kirk, 2009; McCluskey, Patchin, & Bynum, 2004), and fear of crime (Wyant, 2008) among other social problems (see Sampson, 2012). From this body of research, it is clear that neighborhoods play critical roles in the lives of those that live, work, and socialize within their boundaries. For decades scholars have noted that communities differ in their capacity to create and enforce normative levels of pro-social behavior (see Kornhauser, 1978; Bursik, 1988; Warner, 2007). Networks of informal social control are
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