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Perception of Collective Efficacy
Collective efficacy is an essential concept in helping communities stop crimes. The perception of collective efficacy can be defined as the consideration that the people in a neighborhood are trustable and can do their part to partake in social control to benefit a specific community. The perception of collective efficacy may predict how individuals behave when they witness a crime in a particular community. Social capital, which defines the character of a group’s interpersonal relations, is central to understanding how collective efficacy is considered by various people. Social capital is constructed when trust-based relationships between individuals encourage action, which facilitates the achievement of various ends. In communities where social capital is strong, a free rider problem is eliminated while a sense of obligation to do their part is developed. In contrast, for communities and groups with weak social capital their sense of obligation to participate in collective ends is weak as well (Chouhy & Unnever, 2022). Social capital is related to neighborhoods in the sense that trustful relationships between neighbors allow them to will partake in community matters and become informal social control agents.
In addition, individual and collective efficacy perceptions are based on the level of trustworthiness that residents feel toward their neighbors. Furthermore, they should willingly accept to be informal social control agents. Social integration plays an essential role in the development of collective efficacy perceptions. It helps community members establish familiarity, which may breed trust. More often, familiarity will lead to the formation of a positive collective efficacy perception (Gearhart, 2020). Additionally, social ties within neighborhoods facilitate support and trust among members, reinforcing informal social control to regulate violent acts among juvenile offenders.
Mental Illness and Delinquency
Mental illness is a severe factor that may aggravate the likelihood of young adults committing crimes. Existing scholarship shows that youth detained in juvenile prisons experience multiple mental health challenges that are so serious they can be categorized as psychiatric disorders. As a result, it is critical to review youth arrests related to delinquency in the U.S. and how collective efficacy may help mediate the relationship between delinquency and mental illness. In 1997, about 2.7 million young adults aged below 18 were arrested, with the number decreasing by seventy-four percent by 2019 (Youth, n.d.). Although the number of incarcerated youths is declining every year, about 423,077 cases involving delinquency are tried in juvenile courts each year (Youth, n.d.). Research suggests that boys are more likely to be detained and petitioned than girls for the majority of delinquent offenses. Regarding ethnicity and race, youth of color are treated differently in the juvenile justice system compared to White peers. In addition, Black and Brown youth have a high chance of being committed and detained compared to White youth.
Youth in the juvenile justice system often experience substance use and mental health disorders. Research points to an overwhelming overrepresentation of mental health issues among young offenders. About 70 percent of young delinquents have a mental health disorder, with 30 percent of them facing grave mental health problems (Youth, n.d.). Most adolescent offenders under adjudication use illegal substances regularly. Those who perpetrate more chronic and severe offenses are known to abuse more substances. In addition, between 2018 and 2005, youth who violated drug law was reduced by forty-four percent (Youth, n.d.). The statistics are significant since high substance use levels amplify offending rates, antisocial behavior, and committed offenses.
Collective efficacy may alleviate mental health and reduce delinquency. Children and young adults that live in neighborhoods with high collective efficacy levels experience low levels of mental health problems. Communities where residents collectively maintain public social order or intervene in risky or negative behavior can support the mental health of children and young adults by offering feelings of safety and protection. Efficacious neighborhoods can attract resources from public bodies, social services, and larger infrastructures, which enables better children’s health by reinforcing their beliefs that they can cope with stress effectively (Lee, 2020). Collective efficacy combined with improved authoritative parenting reduces delinquency in adolescents (Nilsson et al., 2021). Thus, community-level solutions that focus on collective efficacy can help attenuate the relationship between delinquency and mental health.
Depression
Depression statistics in the U.S. can show how prevalent the problem is in the country. For instance, about 4.1 million young adults aged between 12 and 17 are depressed, representing approximately 17 percent of the age group (National Institute of Mental Health, 2022). Justice-involved young adults face child maltreatment and have a history of traumas. Female offenders suffer from higher depression rates compared to boys, with girls facing sexual abuse. Depression can be used as a predictor of criminal behavior among young offenders. It may cause indifferent feelings towards a person’s safety and the repercussions of their actions, increasing criminogenic outcomes. In addition, depression can cause peer rejection, low self-esteem, and withdrawal, resulting in delinquency (Wakefield et al., 2019). Weak attachment to prosocial institutions such as schools may diminish social bonds, increasing the likelihood of committing minor crimes.
Collective efficacy in communities may help solve the prevalence of depression among adolescents. Existing scholarship suggests that neighborhoods with high collective efficacy levels experience less depression-related delinquency compared to poor neighborhoods. Areas with increased levels of collective efficacy have strong social cohesion, which reduces depressive symptoms in young adults. In addition, the absence of social cohesion and neighborhood disorder is associated with increased depression diagnoses and depressive signs in adolescents (Dawson, 2019). Collective efficacy can effectively eliminate most social concerns; however, the effectiveness depends on how neighbors are willing to participate in finding solutions to challenges.
References
Chouhy, C., & Unnever, J. D. (2022). Is collective efficacy a theory of offending? Unraveling the relationship between individual-level perceptions of collective efficacy and youth offending. Justice Quarterly, 39(1), 51-77.
Dawson, C. T. (2019). The effect of collective efficacy and neighborhood structural disadvantage on depressive symptoms among adolescents in the United States (Doctoral dissertation).
Gearhart, M. C. (2020). Parent and child perceptions of collective efficacy as predictors of delinquency.The British Journal of Social Work, 50(1), 25-41.
Lee, J. H. (2020). Neighborhood collective efficacy and children’s mental health problems in South Korea: A multilevel analysis. Child Indicators Research, 13(1), 19-31.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). (2022). Major depression.
Nilsson, E. L., Ivert, A. K., & Torstensson Levander, M. (2021). Adolescents´ perceptions, neighborhood characteristics and parental monitoring-are they related, and do they interact in the explanation of adolescent offending?Child Indicators Research, 14(3), 1075-1087.
Wakefield, S. M., Baronia, R., & Brennan, S. (2019). Depression in justice-involved youth. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics, 28(3), 327-336.
Youth. (n.d.). Youth involved with the juvenile justice system.
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