Sense of Community and Informal Social Control Among Lower Income Households: The Role of Homeownership and Collective Efficacy in Reducing Subjective Neighborhood Crime and Disorder

We examine the link between homeownership, collective efficacy, and subjective neighborhood crime and disorder. Although prior research suggests that homeownership provides social benefits, the housing downturn and foreclosure crisis, coupled with mounting evidence that people self-select into housing, raise questions about the role of homeownership. We adjust for respondents’ decision to own or rent using a nationwide sample of lower-income households. We account for demographic and neighborhood characteristics as well as ratings of individual efficacy. We present a structural equation model that identifies how sense of community and informal social control jointly contribute to collective efficacy. The latent collective efficacy construct mediates the impact of homeownership on resident’s perceptions of neighborhood disorder. Such perceptions matter because they have been linked to resident’s physical and mental health. Our findings demonstrate that when coupled with sustainable mortgages, homeownership exerts a robust yet indirect effect in reducing subjective neighborhood crime and disorder. Our model also links collective efficacy to neighborhood racial homogeneity, a finding which presents challenges for the study of diversity and community. We discuss sense of community research as well as sustainable mortgages and implications of the foreclosure crisis for the future of homeownership opportunities among lower income households and neighborhoods.     

Community-Engaged Neighborhood Revitalization and Empowerment: Busy Streets Theory in Action

Busy streets theory predicts that engaging residents in physical revitalization of neighborhoods will facilitate community empowerment through the development of sense of community, social cohesion, collective efficacy, social capital, and behavioral action. Establishing safe environments fosters positive street activity, which reinforces neighborhood social relationships. A community-engaged approach to crime prevention through environmental design (CE-CPTED) is one promising approach to creating busy streets because it engages residents in collaborative interactions to promote safer environments. Yet, few researchers have studied how CE-CPTED may be associated with busy streets. We interviewed 18 residents and stakeholders implementing CE-CPTED in Flint, Michigan. We studied three neighborhoods with different levels of resident control over CE-CPTED. Participants described how CE-CPTED implementation affected their neighborhood. Participants from all three neighborhoods reported that CE-CPTED was associated with positive street activity, sense of community, and collective efficacy. Participants from neighborhoods with higher resident control of CE-CPTED reported more social capital and behavioral action than those from neighborhoods with less resident control. Our findings support busy streets theory: Community engagement in neighborhood improvement enhanced community empowerment. CE-CPTED that combines physical revitalization with resident engagement and control creates a potent synergy for promoting safe and healthy neighborhoods.     

Crime in College Predicts Violent Crime in the National Football League

ABSTRACT

The relationship between past and future crime is one of the most robust findings within criminology. Yet, there have been few attempts to examine whether this linkage holds in specific employment arenas. In this study, we consider the relationship between past and future crime within the context of the National Football League (NFL). Specifically, we assess whether there is a relationship between pre-NFL arrests and arrests while playing in the NFL. Using data on NFL arrestees coupled with an internet-based search of arrests prior to their joining the NFL, we find that pre-NFL arrests are positive and significantly related to violent (but not total or non-violent) arrests. Also, this pattern of findings was observed for non-white NFL players, but not white players. Limitations, future research directions, and policy implications are highlighted.     

Busy Streets Theory: The Effects of Community‐engaged Greening on Violence

Lack of maintenance on vacant neighborhood lots is associated with higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress for nearby residents. Overgrown grasses and dense brush provide hiding spots for criminals and space to conduct illicit activities. This study builds upon previous research by investigating greening programs that engage community members to conduct routine maintenance on vacant lots within their neighborhoods. The Clean & Green program is a community‐based solution that facilitates resident‐driven routine maintenance of vacant lots in a midsized, Midwestern city. We use mixed effects regression to compare assault and violent crime counts on streets where vacant lot(s) are maintained by community members (N = 216) versus streets where vacant lots were left alone (N = 446) over a 5‐year timeframe (2009–2013). Street segments with vacant lots maintained through the Clean & Green program had nearly 40% fewer assaults and violent crimes than street segments with vacant, abandoned lots, which held across 4 years with a large sample and efforts to test counterfactual explanations. Community‐engaged greening programs may not only provide a solution to vacant lot maintenance, but also work as a crime prevention or reduction strategy. Engaging the community to maintain vacant lots in their neighborhood reduces costs and may increase the sustainability of the program.     

The Surplus of Evil in Welfare Society: Contemporary Scandinavian Crime Fiction

The best-selling Scandinavian crime fiction of the last ten years extensively deals with the problem of remaining evil in a peaceful and just welfare society. It develops a view of "secular theodicy" which aims at explaining the presence of radical evil in a secular late modern society. In this explanation it employs the Lutheran imagery of "hidden God" (Deus absconditus). The paper reviews recent novels by Henning Mankell, Anne Holt, Sven Westerberg, Helena von Zweigbergk and Anna Jansson.     

Multilevel Factor Analysis: Reporting Guidelines and a Review of Reporting Practices

We provide reporting guidelines for multilevel factor analysis (MFA) and use these guidelines to systematically review 72 MFA applications in journals across a range of disciplines (e.g., education, health/nursing, management, and psychology) published between 1994 and 2014. Results are organized in terms of the (a) characteristics of the MFA application (e.g., construct measured), (b) purpose (e.g., measurement validation), (c) data source (e.g., number of cases at Level 1 and Level 2), (d) statistical approach (e.g., maximum likelihood), and (e) results reported (e.g., intraclass correlations for indicators and latent variables, standardized factor loadings, fit indices). Results from this review have implications for applied researchers interested in expanding their approaches to psychometric analyses and construct validation within a multilevel framework and for methodologists using Monte Carlo methods to explore technical and methodological issues grounded in realistic research design conditions.     

The Geography of Political Communication: Effects of Regional Variations in Campaign Advertising on Citizen Communication

This study explores whether and how campaign‐induced changes in local information environments influence citizens' everyday communication activities. The empirical analysis in this study centers on a comparison of two New Jersey media markets that showed idiosyncratic differences in the amount of political advertising during the 2000 presidential campaign. Results from this natural quasi‐experimental design provide evidence that a respondent's media market was a significant factor for her news attention and interpersonal discussion. That is, New Jersey residents in high‐ad‐volume areas were more active in political communication practices than those in low‐volume areas. The findings of this study deepen our understanding of citizens' information seeking and political conversation, both of which have long been explained by individual‐level differences.     

Improving the Reporting of Health and Psychological Research

A growing body of empirical evidence has consistently demonstrated that much publically and privately funded research is reported in a way that makes it difficult for the findings to be included in evidence syntheses or used by researchers, clinicians, policy makers, and the public. Poorly reported studies thus represent a significant waste of scarce resources. Reporting guidelines are one strategy that has been increasingly used as a method to improve the completeness or usability of primary and secondary research across a broad range of disciplines including psychology. We present a synopsis of two studies investigating the impact of the Transparent Reporting of Evaluation with Nonrandomised Designs statement and factors that affect authors' and journal editors' use of it and other reporting guidelines. We also make recommendations for future guideline development or revisions based on our experiences, provide details of resources for psychologists, and make suggestions for future research and recommendations for improving the transparency of reporting of psychological research.     

Neighborhood Crime and School Climate as Predictors of Elementary School Academic Quality: A Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis

Past research has found negative relationships between neighborhood structural disadvantage and students’ academic outcomes. Comparatively little work has evaluated the associations between characteristics of neighborhoods and schools themselves. This study explored the longitudinal, reciprocal relationships between neighborhood crime and school-level academic achievement within 500 urban schools. Results revealed that higher neighborhood crime (and particularly violent crime) predicted decreases in school academic achievement across time. School climate emerged as one possible mechanism within this relationship, with higher neighborhood crime predicting decreases in socioemotional learning and safety, but not academic rigor. All three dimensions of school climate were predictive of changes in academic achievement. Although this research supports a primarily unidirectional hypothesis of neighborhoods’ impacts on embedded settings, additional work is needed to understand these relationships using additional conceptualizations of neighborhood climate.     

连续报告任务中无效后线索对后线索效益的影响

本文采用连续报告任务,从非线索指示项目的角度入手,探讨无效后线索的存在是否会影响后线索效应的产生,以此进一步了解"后线索效益"的产生机制。结果表明,无论采用空间后注意线索,还是非空间的颜色后注意线索,都产生了"后线索效益",即后线索确实提高了被试视觉工作记忆的表现。无效后线索的存在不会影响"后线索效益"的产生,该效益的理论解释符合优先提取说,即被试会利用后注意线索优先提取线索指示项目,产生更快和更准确的反应。     

Corporate Crime as Trouble: Reporting on the Corporate Scandals of 2002

Bankruptcies at Enron and other corporations led to revelations of widespread wrongdoing: the Corporate Scandals of 2002. Congressional hearings into the scandals culminated in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002). There was extensive media coverage of these events. Using insights from Emerson and Messinger's (1977 Emerson , Robert and S. Sheldon Messinger . 1977 . “The Micro-Politics of Trouble.” Social Problems 25 : 121 – 134 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) Micro-Politics of Trouble perspective, we consider how three newspapers covered the scandals. We focus on how these scandals were defined, explained, and the remedies that were proposed for them. We consider what the Micro-Politics of Trouble perspective offers for an understanding of these scandals, corporate crime and deviance generally, and the media's role in reporting these issues.     

The Role of Childhood Neglect and Childhood Poverty in Predicting Mental Health, Academic Achievement and Crime in Adulthood

This study examines the roles of childhood neglect and childhood poverty (family and neighborhood) in predicting Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), academic achievement, and crime in young adulthood. Using existing data from a prospective cohort design study, 1,005 children with documented histories of neglect (N = 507) and matched controls (N = 497) were interviewed in young adulthood (mean age 29). Official criminal histories were also used to assess outcomes. Data were analyzed using logistic and ordinary least squares regressions and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to control for neighborhood clustering. Results from HLM revealed that childhood neglect and childhood family poverty uniquely predicted PTSD and adult arrest, MDD was predicted only by childhood family poverty, and a significant interaction between childhood family poverty and childhood neighborhood poverty predicted academic achievement for the control group only. Childhood neglect, childhood family poverty, and childhood neighborhood poverty each contribute to poor outcomes later in life. While interventions should be developed for neglected children to prevent negative outcomes, the current findings suggest that it is also important to consider the ecological context in which these children are growing up.     

Barriers to Reporting Sexual Victimization: Prevalence and Correlates among Undergraduate Women

This study examined the frequency and correlates of barriers to reporting sexual victimization to law enforcement. Participants were 127 female undergraduate sexual assault victims who completed self-report surveys. The most frequently reported barriers were “I handled it myself” and “I didn't think it was serious enough.” Factor analysis of the reported barriers items revealed two factors: shame/not wanting others involved and did not acknowledge the event as a crime?/handled it myself. Shame/not wanting others involved was positively associated with physical injury, being victimized by a relative, and self-blame. Acknowledgment/handled it myself was negatively associated with being victimized by a relative. Findings suggest that intervention efforts should focus on increasing acknowledgment, decreasing negative reactions to disclosure, and decreasing victims' self-blame.     

ITC Guidelines on Quality Control in Scoring,Test Analysis,and Reporting of Test Scores

The Quality Control (QC) Guidelines are intended to increase the efficiency, precision, and accuracy of the scoring, analysis, and reporting process of testing. The QC Guidelines focus on large-scale testing operations where multiple forms of tests are created for use on set dates. However, they may also be used for a wide variety of other testing situations and assessment techniques and for almost any situation in which assessment occurs. The QC Guidelines are applicable in any form of test administration, including paper and pencil tests and the ever-increasing computerized assessments via the Internet or offline.     

Reasons for Gaps in Crime Reporting: The Case of White-Collar Criminals Investigated by Private Fraud Examiners in Norway

Recent years have seen an increasing use of private internal investigations assessing financial irregularities that often imply economic crime. When fraud examiners discover evidence of white-collar crime, they often leave it to their clients whether the issue should be reported to the police. We examine the gaps in white-collar crime reporting after fraud examination and reasons behind such decisions. In Norway, non-reporting could be as high as 96%, as calculated in this article. We apply techniques of neutralization to private fraud examiners’ reasoning for non-reporting of suspected or detected white-collar crime. We also offer possible policy-based solutions to reduce the identified gaps in reporting.     

Why do child sexual abuse victims not tell anyone about their abuse? An exploration of factors that prevent and promote disclosure

Disclosure rates of child sexual abuse (CSA) to both social supports and law enforcement are concerningly low, although more research is needed to understand factors that impact disclosure. Thus, the present study examined rates of informal (i.e., to a social support) and formal (i.e., to law enforcement) disclosure of CSA, as well as victims' self-reported experiences with telling others about their own abuse and their perceptions of the overall advantages and disadvantages of disclosure. In all, 76 undergraduate women (who collectively experienced 105 instances of abuse) participated in a semi-structured interview regarding their history of CSA. Results revealed that approximately 50% of cases involved the victim informally disclosing, and only 10% of cases being formally disclosed to authorities. The quantitative and qualitative data shed light on a number of factors that lead victims to not disclose, as well as the identification of factors that may promote a victim to share their abuse with others. The implications for improved prevention and responses to CSA disclosure are discussed.     

Turning a Blind Eye: A Study of Peer Reporting in a Business School Setting

This article examines student peer reporting by extending the findings from the business ethics and higher education literature. In the conceptual model we propose that reflective moral attentiveness, subjective knowledge of the code of ethics, and academic dishonesty beliefs antecede ethical judgment of peer reporting, which impacts intentions to report peers’ unethical behavior. The relationships are tested using structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that moral attentiveness significantly influences ethical judgment, which in turn affects intention. The relationship between beliefs about academic dishonesty and ethical judgment is partially supported. Based on these results, suggestions for higher education institutions are provided.