Community-based crime prevention and neighborhood activism: Testing the mediational role of mutual efficacy and neighboring in collective efficacy theory

Discussions around policing in America highlight a need for police reform and community-based alternatives to the police. Community participation is necessary for both of these goals. Collective efficacy, defined as the process by which social cohesion is activated as action in communities, is a framework for understanding how groups act collectively. Though collective efficacy is associated with multiple positive outcomes, interventions based on collective efficacy are limited in their effectiveness. The present study tests mutual efficacy and neighboring as factors that mediate the relationship between social cohesion and two actions: neighborhood activism and informal social control. Findings suggest that mutual efficacy and neighboring mediate the relationship between social cohesion and neighborhood activism but not informal social control. Results emphasize the importance of practice behaviors that empower and develop connections among community members. These behaviors can have a direct effect on activism and an indirect role in community-based crime prevention.