Cohesion and Control, Collectively

                 Before reading Sampson’s work, I never really knew what collective efficacy was or what its implications were at a neighborhood level. However, now I know that collective efficacy is collectively controlling behavior of individuals and groups within a community through the mechanisms of social cohesion and shared expectations for control. I see stark contrasts between these mechanisms that are relevant to the two places I have lived in my life, the western suburb of Winfield and my current apartment in Dekalb. Though these areas do not really represent an urban community, the elements of collective efficacy can still be examined at this neighborhood level.

    Sampson measured social cohesion by identifying if community members tended to be like-minded, worked together, shared values, trusted each other, and got along. While I can observe some elements of social cohesion in my neighborhood in Dekalb in that we are all college students, the level of cohesion is much higher in Winfield. Upon walking down the street there, neighbors are friendly and wave to one another, chat, and tend to share familial values. In addition, people trust that their neighbors will look after their house if they leave town or even pick up their garbage can if it ended up in the street. These type of values and traits allow for higher social cohesion and thus collective efficacy. In Dekalb, the cohesion is not so prevalent. Trust tends to be more of an issue because rates of crime are higher. Often neighbors will walk past me without even saying hello. And if a package is sitting outside of someone’s apartment, it is not guaranteed that it will be there when they return home.

                Collective efficacy cannot be prevalent without shared expectations for control. Sampson measured this by asking if community members were likely to be counted on to take action if they saw certain behaviors. These included children skipping school, painting graffiti, disrespecting an adult, fighting, or if a firehouse was threatened to close because of budget cuts. The differences for control are drastically different between Winfield and Dekalb. Community members in Winfield would tend to certainly take action if they saw kids skipping school or vandalizing property. In addition, fighting is not very common but it would be intervened upon if seen in most cases. The issue with keeping a fire department in town would be greatly acted upon because the town is concerned with the politics affecting their families. In Dekalb, these measures of control indicating low collective efficacy are much more commonplace. I can hear people fighting and causing a ruckus most days. Cigarette butts and debris litter the hallway to my apartment and never seems to get cleaned up. I am almost certain that if the fire station was threatened of being closed, most of my neighbors would not really care to get involved. After all, this location is a transient form of housing for most. This makes their concern over such issues much lower. In fact, the idea of control and the question of whether or not one would get involved brings to mind an event I witnessed recently.

I went outside my apartment and to my surprise the dumpster (visible from the highway) was on fire. How long had this been burning and why hadn’t someone called the police? I took action and did so but it makes me wonder if people had seen it and cared so little that they did not even act.
                 Overall, collective efficacy is an important construct and it varies at the neighborhood level. With lower levels of social cohesion and expectations for control, there are lower levels of collective efficacy. When collective efficacy is low, there are higher crime rates. This is demonstrated in a negative feedback loop where violence deters collective efficacy and collective efficacy deters violence. Because I have demonstrated how the collective efficacy appears to be quite low at my apartment complex and neighborhood area, it makes sense that there is more violence and crime compared to a more collectively efficacious area like my hometown of Winfield.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/01/know-thy-neighbor-reduce-gun-violence/384598/