Collective efficacy is a neighborhood-level concept in which community members create a sense of agency and assume ownership for the state of their local community. This concept is one of several forms of formal and informal social control that predict the overall functioning of a community. In this book, the authors examine collective efficacy and crime in eight Miami-Dade County, Florida neighborhoods, based on data they collected from across the country and in the Miami-Dade neighborhoods themselves. They discuss findings relevant to the theory of collective efficacy itself, ramifications for its use within communities, and make recommendations for future research and for translating these results into actionable, crime prevention activities.

Craig D. Uchida is president of Justice& Security Strategies, Inc. and received his doctorate from the University of Albany.Marc L. Swatt is senior research associate and statistician with Justice& Security Strategies, Inc.Shellie E. Solomon is chief executive officer of Justice& Security Strategies, Inc. and is a doctoral student at the University of Masstricht.Sean P. Varano is associate professor in the School of Justice Studies at Roger Williams University.

Chapter 1: Community, Crime Control, and Collective EfficacyChapter 2: MethodologyChapter 3: Psychometric Properties of the New Collective Efficacy ScaleChapter 4: The Relationships between Perceptions of Collective Efficacy and Social Cohesion and Outcome VariablesChapter 5: Assessing Heterogeneity in Perceptions of Collective Efficacy and Social Cohesion across NeighborhoodsChapter 6: Exploring the Predictors of Perceptions of Collective Efficacy and Perceptions of Social CohesionChapter 7: Within Neighborhood Variation in Collective Efficacy and Social CohesionChapter 8: Conclusions and Discussion for Future ResearchChapter 9: Conclusions and Discussion for Future Policy