Blog #5- Collective Efficacy

      As described in our text collective efficacy as Sampson and his colleagues describe it are broken down into two key factors, social cohesion and expectations for control (p. 152) to me this means that as a whole, the community strives to achieve a certain level of safety and understanding. Further down in the text Sampson describes that the framework of collective efficacy does not necessarily mean that all in the community need to be friends or even know each other but they all have similar needs and expectations of their community. The article I read outside the text was an article written by Browning, Feinberg and Dietz challenging the typical idea of collective efficacy, in their paper the paradox of social organization they discuss how they used a census to test the theory that social networks (our relationships within the community) mixed with collective efficacy have basically cancelled each other out and those neighborhoods have become a "social capital" for offenders. Answering to Sampson's questions below...

1- Children skipping school and hanging out on a street corner - If I know them, call their parents. I would want to know if my kids were hanging out on a street corner, not necessarily because I think they would get into trouble themselves but it seems like there is a constant stream of stories of young girls and boys being abducted. your child could be taken early in the morning and you would never know until they didn't come home from school. I hope that my children will always keep me in the loop and I don't think that is to much to ask. I always told my parents what I was doing, even if it was skipping class (and I did A LOT). At least they knew where I was, with that came freedom for myself and comfort for my parents always knowing where I was. I'm sure it would have been different if I was a bad kid with bad grades.

2- Children were spray painting on a local building - I know there a those out there who think that graffiti is a form of art, great, spray paint a wall in your own back yard. I like that my neighborhood and town look clean. I would definitely call the cops on this one. I would not stop to say anything, here come the stereotype....  I'm not sure what kind of kids I would be dealing with, usually those that paint graffiti are gang members or troublemakers. I don't like thinking that but I  have children that I need to take care of and would much rather call the police then try to intervene myself and possibly put my children at risk.  

3- Children were showing disrespect to an adult - On a situation such as this I would need a little more detail. I was raised to respect my elders and treat everyone with kindness, now a days I feel like parenting is seriously lacking. If this was a child disrespecting their parent, I would let the parent deal with it, again it depends on the extent, it is not my business on how their children are raised, but on the other side, my children will have to deal with children like this.... so I guess it depends on what is going down. If it seemed to be a group of children disrespecting an adult that they don't seem to know then I would definitely say something. 

4- A fight breaks out in front of my house - I would call the police, especially since I have children to look after, I don't need anyone fighting in front of my house. Some times people just need to be put in their place and it seems that only an authoritative source such as the police can do something like that, unless I know the people, If I knew them well I would probably send my husband outside to see if he can break it up (staying safe of course though)  

5 Fire station closest to my home was threatened by budget cuts - I would be pretty upset, the further away the station the longer it would take for them to come help us if a situation were to arise. I would probably go to the city to see what we as a community/neighborhood could do to prevent it. (volunteers, donations etc.)

Looking at my responses, I realized two things. One, I really rely on the police. God forbid a world where we don't have such a luxury. Two, I tend to stereotype the type of people who do these things (even though I didn't type most my thoughts I sure was thinking them! ) I feel like I live in an unpredictable world and I will do whatever it takes to protect myself and my children even if that means that I must think about the worst that can happen. I promise I don't always look at the negative, I am one who always tries to see the good in things however, people can't live with their head in the sand :) I would like to consider myself positively cautious :) 

Browning C, Feinberg S, Dietz R. The Paradox of Social Organization: Networks, Collective Efficacy, and Violent Crime in Urban Neighborhoods. Social Forces [serial online]. December 2004;83(2):503-534. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed September 23, 2013.