Sources of Informal Social Control in Chicago Neighborhoods*

Abstract

Why do youth in structurally disadvantaged neighborhoods experience lower levels of informal social control? To answer this question, we examined multilevel data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Using hierarchical regression, we found that (1) neighborhood attachment and satisfaction with police contributed significantly to neighborhood levels of informal social control; and (2) neighborhood attachment and satisfaction with police mediated a substantial portion of the association between informal social control and neighborhood levels of concentrated disadvantage and immigrant concentration.

Policing community problems: Exploring the role of formal social control in shaping collective efficacy

“…The Grove is a useful site to examine when considering the relationship between policing and CE, particularly when contrasted with Campbellville. With high CE, the literature predicts that residents in The Grove might believe the police to be legitimate and be satisfied with police responses to community problems or alternatively, residents might be dissatisfied with police effectiveness due to the moderate rate of crime (Silver and Miller, 2004). In regard to police strategies, a moderate rate of crime leads us to anticipate that police would provide a visible, but not overbearing enforcement presence in the community Silver and Miller, 2004).…”

“…Murphy et al, 2008;Tyler and Fagan, 2008), current research on CE does not. For example, while Silver and Miller (2004) find the perceived ability of the police to prevent and control crime and respond to community problems is important to informal social control, they do not measure legitimacy or procedural justice (see also Sun et al, 2004). Kochel (2012) provides a more robust test of the relationship between policing and CE by distinguishing between police legitimacy and police service quality.…”

“…The first is that police effectiveness encourages CE (Kubrin and Weitzer, 2003;Silver and Miller, 2004). When police perform their job well to effectively control crime and respond to community problems and calls for service, citizens feel they can rely on the police and will subsequently be willing to take the risks 5 associated with intervention (Kääriäinen and Sirén, 2011;Silver and Miller, 2004;Warner, 2007). Alternatively, residents who believe that the police in their community are 'ineffective' may 'feel vulnerable when considering whether to try to stop street deviance' (Kubrin and Weitzer, 2003: 383).…”

“…The remainder of this paper considers the relationship between policing and CE. Silver and Miller (2004) propose that when police are perceived to be effective in preventing and controlling crime, and are responsive to calls for service, community residents will be more willing to intervene in community problems (see also Kääriäinen and Sirén, 2011;Warner, 2007). Yet in Campbellville, residents' perceptions of police effectiveness were not uniform.…”

“…Some scholars argue that when police use these place-focused, partnership-oriented interventions to facilitate and encourage collective efficacy (CE), such efforts may lead to less crime Scott, 2002). Others suggest police effectiveness is important to CE (Kubrin and Weitzer, 2003;Silver and Miller, 2004), whereas Kochel (2012: 389) argues legitimacy is key, and that when police are perceived as illegitimate they weaken the '…foundation on which neighborhoods can build consensus about the appropriate behaviors to expect in the neighborhood' (see also LaFree, 1998;Sun et al, 2004). …”