Neighborhood effects and informal social control: Examining the role of social networks in the South Bronx.
Item
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Title
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Neighborhood effects and informal social control: Examining the role of social networks in the South Bronx.
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Identifier
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AAI3287141
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identifier
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3287141
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Creator
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Rengifo, Andres F.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Todd R. Clear
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Date
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2007
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, Criminology and Penology | Sociology, Social Structure and Development
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Abstract
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This study assesses the role of social networks in neighborhood-level processes of social control. It examines the extent to which properties of personal social ties are associated with structural ecological covariates such as concentrated poverty and residential mobility. It associates indicators of the breadth and scope of personal networks to scales of informal control measuring the ability of residents to monitor public spaces and participate in the socialization of youth. This network-based approach is compared with a more traditional perspective based on proxies of relational processes of social cohesion, neighborliness and other local exchanges. Lastly, self-regulatory practices are studied in connection to tract-level crime rates for specific offenses and individual-level self-reports of criminal victimization. These assessments are based on the multi-level analysis of survey data and administrative records for Community District 1 in the South Bronx.;The overall structure of this inquiry was guided by the postulates of the systemic model of social disorganization (Bursik and Grasmick, 1993). This perspective explains aggregate variations in crime levels using a community-based approach focused on the relationship between processes of social integration and types of social control. Specifically, it concentrates on the measurement of relational processes related to both the nature of personal networks---e.g., reach, homogeneity, locality---as well as the degree of involvement of residents in local organizations. According to the theory, these primary and secondary domains of association reflect key structural characteristics of neighborhoods in terms of socio-economic conditions and population turnover. More importantly, networks are hypothesized to influence the capacity of communities to self-regulate beyond actual patterns of civic engagement and formal controls. This emerging construct is often labeled as informal social control and encompasses behaviors and expectations ranging from the supervision and socialization of youth to actual safety and crime-related interventions by local residents.;Results indicate partial support for the systemic model: While most indicators of network structure did not vary across tracts, the overall size of these networks was positively and significantly associated with patterns of residential stability when controlling for individual-level and other tract-level variables. Similarly, residents of more disadvantaged tracts were found to have more social ties, although most of these tended to be created locally. Several network properties also predicted variations in informal social control, although their value as independent variables decreased when these measures were operationalized as tract-level covariates. Compared to traditionally-employed network proxies (e.g. perceived social cohesion, perceived social support), network-based ecological measures were less stable and less likely to yield significant associations with ratings of control capacity. This dissertation found very little convergence between the set of empirically-derived network proxies and tract-level or respondent-level network measures. Finally, the majority of the models testing multi-level associations between crime variables and measures of community organization did not support the statistical association between these two constructs.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
