| An emerging body of research suggests that neighborhood "collective efficacy" -- consisting of measures of social control and social cohesion -- is related to lower rates of violence and other adverse health outcomes in urban neighborhoods. This study extends work on neighborhood collective efficacy and violent crime in a number oof areas. First, rather than focusing on rates of violent crime per se, the current study treats as its primary outcomes the neighborhood-level variance in mean ages of homicide victims and offenders. Collectively efficacious neighborhoods exercising greater child supervision should not only have less violent crime, but also fewer youth involved in xcrime either as victims or offenders. Second, utilizing a new methodology that brings toghether multilevel and spatial dependence models, the analysis looks for evidence of spatial contagion in younger mean ages of offending and victimization. That is, all else being equal, the age profile of homicide in a given neighborhood may be influenced by that in surrounding neighborhoods. Finally, given the trends towards greater youth violence in the late 1980s that characterized Chicago and many other American cities, the analysis examines the factors that predict change in neighborhood age profiles over time. |
Updated 05/20/2006