Collective Efficacy
Definition
A concept developed by Robert Sampson referring to the combination of social cohesion among neighbours and their shared willingness to intervene in local problems. Areas high in collective efficacy sustain lower crime rates even when poverty is held constant.
- Originator
- Robert Sampson
- Components
- Social cohesion plus willingness to intervene
- Effect
- Lower crime independent of poverty level
- Field
- Social disorganisation / critical criminology
Common questions
How is collective efficacy different from simple neighbourhood cohesion?+
Cohesion alone (residents knowing and trusting each other) is not enough; collective efficacy requires that trust to translate into a shared willingness to actually intervene, such as confronting truant youths or calling police on suspicious activity.
Why is holding poverty constant important to the concept?+
It shows collective efficacy is not simply a proxy for wealth. Two neighbourhoods with similar poverty levels can have very different crime rates depending on their level of collective efficacy, which is what makes it a useful policy lever distinct from economic intervention.
Related terms
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- Community-Based Crime Prevention
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- Community Policing
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- Conflict Criminology
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- Feminist Criminology
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- Informal Social Control
- The regulation of behaviour through neighbours noticing, commenting on, or reporting on one another, rather than through police or courts.
- Left Realism
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- Mohalla Committee
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- Neighbourhood Watch
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- Selection Bias
- A distortion that arises when the group being studied is not a random sample of the wider population; in Neighbourhood Watch research,...
- Social Disorganisation
- The condition of a neighbourhood in which social institutions have weakened to the point where they can no longer effectively regulate behaviour...
Explained in these topics
- Neighbourhood Involvement in Crime Prevention (UGC-NET Unit II)A neighbourhood's shared willingness to intervene for the common good, combined with mutual trust among residents, that underlies whether informal social contr...
- Social Disorganisation and Critical Criminology