Mediating Residents' Trust in Police Through Collective Efficacy Processes

Abstract

Urban area neighborhoods are no stranger to the vastly changing economic and social structures that persist in their communities; in principle and in practice, in the United States, a residents’ place matters. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between collective efficacy processes and the outcome of trust in police. Particularly, the process by which social cohesion activates a form of informal social control through the residents’ perceived social experiences within their neighborhoods and how that relates to trust in police. Data utilized for this study derives from the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Making Connections Survey. Using path analysis, I found that informal social control acts as a mediator between social cohesion and trust in police. These results indicate that social cohesion through a residents’ ability to intervene and regulate social control positively relates to the outcome of trust in police. As such, members of the community contribute to a socially cohesive system when they can ascribe to shared characteristics and perceive the ability to individually alter or influence the conditions of their neighborhood through social control mechanisms.