The spatial distribution of neighborhood safety ties: Consequences for perceived collective efficacy?

There is conflicting evidence in the literature regarding the relationship between residents’ social networks and their perceptions of neighborhood collective efficacy. This study proposes addressing this challenge with several theoretically motivated refinements using a large spatially stratified sample of residents in the Western United States. First, we consider various distinct types of social relationships, and find that our novel measure of neighborhood safety ties is much more strongly related to perceived collective efficacy than is a measure of socializing relationships. Second, we explicitly account for the spatial distribution of ties, and find that it is not just local neighborhood ties that increase a sense of cohesion or informal social control, but that more spatially distant ties also matter. Third, we make a distinction between urban and rural areas, finding that in rural areas, social ties from an even broader area are associated with stronger feelings of collective efficacy.