Fear of crime, incivilities, and collective efficacy in four Miami neighborhoods

PurposeExtant literature indicates that individual perceptions of collective efficacy and incivilities are important in explaining fear of crime. These studies, however, often implicitly assume that the relationships between key variables do not differ between neighborhoods. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between perceptions of collective efficacy, perceptions of incivilities, and fear of crime and determine whether these relationships are constant between neighborhoods.MethodsSurveys were conducted using a sample of residents from four neighborhoods within Miami-Dade County. Structural equation models were used to examine the relationships between perceptions of collective efficacy, perceptions of incivilities, and fear of crime for each neighborhood separately. Tests for invariance were conducted to determine whether the coefficients from these models differed across neighborhoods.ResultsResults from these analyses suggest that the relationship between perceptions of collective efficacy and fear of crime exhibit significant heterogeneity between neighborhoods, as do a number of other relationships. The relationships between perceptions of collective efficacy and perceptions of incivilities, and perceptions of incivilities and fear of crime do not exhibit heterogeneity.ConclusionsThese results illustrate the importance of examining perceptions of collective efficacy within the neighborhood context. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.

► Coefficients of social process variables are compared across four neighborhoods.
► Coefficients for perceptions of collective efficacy on fear of crime vary.
► Coefficients for perceptions of incivilities on fear of crime do not vary.
► Heterogeneity was also observed for other important theoretical relationships.