Preventing violence in disadvantaged communities: Strategies for building collective efficacy and improving community health

ABSTRACT

Violence is a critical health issue that compromises the strength of communities and permanently damages the lives of individuals and families. The impact of violence on health and well-being is particularly devastating in disadvantaged and minority communities, leading to negative health outcomes, including premature death. However, research suggests that communities can prevent violence and negative health outcomes by developing collective efficacy, which happens when neighbors share norms and values, trust one another, and are willing to intervene to address problems. Despite the importance of collective efficacy in preventing violence and improving health, almost no research has investigated actionable strategies to build collective efficacy in disadvantaged neighborhoods. This article describes a theoretical and conceptual model that illustrates how collective efficacy impacts community violence and related health outcomes. We begin by reviewing other approaches to community violence prevention, including criminal justice and developmental approaches. We then discuss how collective efficacy works and why it matters, including theoretical and empirical research explaining collective efficacy and its impact on community violence and health. We then discuss a research-based intervention that social workers can use to facilitate collective efficacy, including our conceptual model and the key components of the intervention. Finally, we discuss implications for social workers who are working with communities to address violence and related health issues.     

How Theory and Research Inform Citizen Participation in Poor Communities: The Ecological Perspective and Theories on Self- and Collective Efficacy and Sense of Community

The engagement of residents in poor, disadvantaged communities has been a focus of social work practice since the early part of the twentieth century. In the person:environment configuration, a renewed appreciation is building for community-level factors in human behavior and functioning. Poor neighborhoods are transactional settings that can negatively impact human behavior and development. However, active citizen participation can positively impact neighborhoods, including strengthening residents' individual and collective capacities and relationships. This article uses the ecological perspective to examine the neighborhood as a transactional setting that influences individual and collective behavior and outcomes and citizen participation as vehicle for improving outcomes for residents living in poor communities. The article also discusses theory and research on self- and collective efficacy and sense of community to understand the motivation for and benefits of citizen participation. Implications for social work research and practice are discussed.     

Passing a Mental Health Levy

ABSTRACT

The “devolution revolution” has decreased federal and state roles in the funding of social services and increased the burden on local sources, both public and private. This article describes how a community passed an initially unpopular property tax levy earmarked to support local drug, alcohol and mental health services. The article illustrates how social workers employing specific community practice knowledge provided leadership to the successful campaign. This example of community practice leadership includes building and maintaining coalitions, managing group tension and conflict and demonstrating fundamental social work values.     

Multisectoral approaches to addressing youth violence

Youth violence is a public health concern that has devastating consequences for communities and requires a collaborative community response. While public health approaches underscore the importance of collaborative efforts to address public health concerns, violence prevention programs are often siloed and lack a multisectored response that includes the education system, criminal justice system, local government, university, and service providers. This article explores the successes and lessons learned from the emergence of a multisectoral community-based initiative to address youth violence in southeastern North Carolina. The model for this initiative evolved from the Harlem Children’s Zone and includes identifying existing resources and coordinating a continuum of support and services to increase availability of after-school, summer enrichment, life-skills, and parenting programs to reduce youth violence. Implications of applying multisectoral community-based interventions are discussed in terms of capacity building, promotion of well-being, and research.     

A comparative study of experiences of client violence and its impact among Iranian and Swedish social workers

Client violence toward social workers has been recognized as a serious problem, and major concern has been raised with regard to its impacts on social workers' practice and physical and psychological health. There is recognition among researchers and policy-makers that it is time for the international social work community to develop conventions and agreements to address this issue globally. A cross-cultural study between Sweden and Iran was conducted to compare and contrast levels of violence between the two countries. Prevalence of violence was 72% in Sweden and 68% in Iran. Iranian social workers show a significantly higher increase in general mental health problems regarding client violence compared to Swedish social workers. Despite differences in rules and regulations between Sweden and Iran, client violence was found to be common in the two countries. Preventive policies for detecting potential violence situation are good but not enough. We suggest taking actions on building trust and supportive structures within organisations.     

The Lull of Tradition: A Grounded Theory Study of Television Violence, Children and Social Work

This article results from a study of television violence and social work practice with children. Twenty-one social workers who work primarily with children in schools, in community mental health agencies and in private practice were interviewed. A qualitative analysis using grounded theory indicates that social workers do little to elicit television content or information about children's television viewing. They do not believe that television experiences are central to their work. Although social workers express concern about the influence of television violence on children, their traditional beliefs in cause and effect, values neutrality, and gender lead many to minimize its importance.     

Street Life–Oriented African American Males and Violence as a Public Health Concern

This article discusses concerns pertaining to the impact of continued exposure to violence for African American street life–oriented adolescent males as a public health concern and the importance of social work and human services to address this issue. Youth interviewed in this study discuss issues of exposure to violence and the navigation of multiple systems involvement, including child welfare, juvenile justice, educational systems, and their neighborhood life. Implications for social workers include the development of community-centric interventions that provide opportunities for youth voice and access to relationship building with trusted professionals and mentors.     

Old battles,new frontiers: A study of television violence and social work with children

This article describes the place of television violence in social work practice with children. It is based on interviews with twenty-one social workers who work primarily with children in schools, in community mental health agencies and in private practices. Although the influence of television violence on children has been well documented by other disciplines, there has been a general lack of attention by social work. Because television is so much a part of children's social environment and because the social environment is so much a part of social work practice this study seeks to address that lack. Grounded theory methodology was utilized to analyze the interviews.This paper is adapted from her dissertation in partial fulfillment of a doctorate at Simmons College School of Social Work, Boston, Massachusetts. The author wishes to thank the dissertation committee members, carol Swenson (Chairperson), Deanna Brooks and Margaret Rhodes for their contributions.     

Using Photovoice to Empower Youth and Adults to Prevent Crime

Photovoice empowers residents to use photographs to identify neighborhood concerns. Although Photovoice has been used to facilitate dialogue and action among residents to address a variety of issues, including neighborhood crime, it has not been used as part of an intervention to promote collective efficacy. This project integrated Photovoice into a crime-prevention program the goal of which was to facilitate collective efficacy, which. in turn, has been associated with lower levels of neighborhood crime and violence. Twenty-four racially diverse youth and adults participated in a crime-prevention training where Photovoice was used first to identify neighborhood characteristics that participants believed contributed to and alleviated crime, and then to develop a community project. Participants worked together to reuse a highly visible vacant lot to create an inviting neighborhood art and garden space that was open to the whole community. This process facilitated stronger social ties among neighborhood residents, as well as strategies for intervening in neighborhood problems, both of which are important components of collective efficacy.     

Sex-positive criminology: Possibilities for legal and social change

This article provides an introduction to sex-positive criminology and its goals for change. Sex-positive criminology draws from the “thick desire” organizing principle, which is a rights-based approach to human sexuality, as well as from positive sexuality approaches. It also draws from critical, queer, and feminist criminological traditions and abolitionist sensibilities. We discuss examples that pertain to key tenets of sex-positivity: consent and bodily autonomy, education, medical access, harm reduction, and ways to increase agency. Main topics of discussion include addressing deeply harmful and sex-negative laws and policies that perpetuate state violence, such as coerced or forced sterilization, criminalization of abortion and pregnancy loss, sexual and physical assault of sex workers by police, criminalization through medically inaccurate laws, and legislation such as Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act that puts marginalized populations at risk. Throughout, we reflect on possibilities for sex-positive laws and policies and the social impacts they would have, such as improving health and well-being.     

Discursive Arenas: Deliberation and the Constitution of Identity in Public Participation at a Local Level

This article is based on empirical research into public participation in two English cities. It discusses issues related to motivations to take part in public participation initiatives and the way in which individual and collective identities may be constructed through participation. Drawing on social movement theory it emphasises the importance both of networks and values in prompting participation and it illustrates this with examples drawn from participation initiatives based around identities: age, gender, ethnicity, and issues/interests such as health inequalities, community regeneration and social care service provision. The analysis suggests it is important to understand the histories and motivations of officials as well as citizens who take part, and questions the priority given to ‘representation’ in constituting the membership of participation forums.     

Virus interruptus: An Arendtian exploration of political world‐building in pandemic times

Building upon a series of blog posts and conversations, two feminist scholars explore how political community, trust, responsibility and solidarity are affected by the COVID‐19 pandemic. We explore the ways in which we can engage in political world‐building during pandemic times through the work of Hannah Arendt. Following Arendt’s notion of the world as the space for human togetherness, we ask: how can we respond to COVID‐19’s interruptions to the familiarity of daily life and our relationship to public space? By extending relational accounts of public health and organizational ethics, we critique a narrow view of solidarity that focuses on individual compliance with public health directives. Instead, we argue that solidarity involves addressing structural inequities, both within public health and our wider community. Finally, we suggest possibilities for political world‐building by considering how new forms of human togetherness might emerge as we forge a collective ‘new normal’.     

Symbols of Collective Memory: The Social Process of Memorializing May 4, 1970, at Kent State University

Monument and memorial building is one of the more dramatic forms of symbolic expression. This form of symbolic expression represents aspects of a community's collective history; and its existence thereby serves to crystallize consensus and solidarity. The building of the memorial is a dialectic of symbolic interaction explicated through use of a social process model. This article will first describe the theoretical issues involved with collective representation and memory. The theoretical base when applied to the activity of memorial building generates a social process model. The model is described by application to the building of various memorials, but particular interest will be focused upon the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D. C. The model suggests how creation of this type of symbolic work involves a complicated organization of social norms or conventions. Part of this organization involves merging norms from a specialized genre of the art world with norms of collective representation residing in the non-professional community. Administrative bureaucracies and political institutions play important roles as well. After the authors explicate the social process model, they apply it to the experience of memorializing students killed and wounded at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. Erection of this memorial involves a process of constructing collective memory in such a way as to create moral unity within the community.     

The Span of Collective Efficacy: Extending Social Disorganization Theory to Partner Violence

This research applies the social disorganization perspective on the neighborhood‐level determinants of crime to partner violence. The analysis brings data from the 1990 Decennial Census together with data from the 1994–1995 Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods Community Survey, the 1994–1995 Chicago homicide data, and data from the 1995–1997 Chicago Health and Social Life Survey. The findings of this study indicate that collective efficacy—neighborhood cohesion and informal social control capacity—is negatively associated with both intimate homicide rates and nonlethal partner violence. Collective efficacy exerts a more powerful regulatory effect on nonlethal violence in neighborhoods where tolerance of intimate violence is low. Collective efficacy also increases the likelihood that women will disclose conflict in their relationships to various potential sources of support.     

Elder Abuse:

Elder abuse in Québec has been defined as a social problem since the late 70s. Many changes in policies, social practices, and laws are proposed as scientific knowledge is still growing. Using research methodology in criminology, elder abuse is defined and the impact of violence and neglect towards elders in the community, family and nursing home settings investigated. This paper critically examines the current knowledge gained through research on elder abuse in Québec and offers suggestions for future progress on this issue.     

Community conflict resolution: the development of social capital within an interactional field

Purpose: In recent years, we have seen the concept of social capital incorporated into academic and popular discourse within the United States and across the globe. Social capital has been linked to the differences in land sale prices among agricultural producers to the economic decisions individuals make as they participate in a market economy to educational attainment, and the collective benefit of more effectively managing the physical and economic resources of a collective.Justification for the focus on social capital has been based on the role social capital plays in enhancing the ability of communities to manage human, economic, and environmental capital. High degrees of social capital have been suggested to enhance a community’s ability to manage controversy. Yet, little is known about the development of social capital within a community. Questions arise such as, “Does a community have to have social capital before a conflict develops if it is to successfully resolve a community wide dispute? If not, then what conceptual framework will provide insight into the development of social capital as a community engages local conflict?”This paper provides a linkage between the community literature, which examines community as an interactional field and the evolving concept of social capital. The concept of community as an interactional field was supported by Kauffman (1959) as he presented an argument that community can be viewed as a field of social interaction, which when strengthened and focused, the result is the creation of public good oriented actions. This public focus provides a structure to better organize and manage community wide resources.Wilkinson, a student of Kauffman, continued this conceptual work as he described two fields. The social field and the community field. The primary distinction between the two fields is that in the social field individuals pursue their own self interest while a community field cuts across these fields and is more generalized. It is within the community field that we see collective action focusing on public good.Methods: Drawing upon a case study the question of “how does social capital develop?” is addressed. This paper examines the development of social capital within the context of a community conflict. By examining the process through the lens of community as an interactional field the development and impact of social capital is highlighted. Utilizing a case study of a small rural Nebraska community the process of social capital development is examined as a small geographically isolated rural community engages across social fields building social capital as it heals and gains skills to manage its human, economic and environmental resources.In this paper I provide a theoretical overview of the conceptual components of social capital, link those to the concept of community as an interactional field and use this theoretical synthesis to examine a case study of a small Nebraskan community as it attempts to resolve a serious community conflict.Results: The findings suggest that social capital is a consequence as well as a cause of community action. The interaction within the social field provides a preliminary forum for increased acquaintanceship densities, which provide in-depth personal knowledge about players across social fields and beyond specific self interests. Norms develop, trust and reciprocity evolve from the increased acquaintanceship density across social fields. Social capital develops as the collective action takes on a community focus versus that of a specific individual or organization. In the case of Alton, Nebraska, social capital developed within the community field as the residents engaged in conflict over a local school.Conclusion: This case study provides insight into how social capital not only can enhance the community’s ability to manage resources but may develop as a consequence of collective action such as resolving a local conflict.     

Mental Health Workforce Change Through Social Work Education: A California Case Study

The 2004 CaliforniaMental Health Services Act requires large-scale system change in the public mental health system through a shift to recovery-oriented services for diverse populations. This article describes an innovative strategy for workforce recruitment and retention to create and sustain these systemic changes. The California Social Work Education Center Mental Health Program provides stipends to master's of social work students at 17 California universities. In return, students must work for 1 year postgraduation in community mental health practice. Results of a 5-year study show that stipend recipients closely mirror the diverse demographics of the state, and 94% have remained in community mental health practice. The article also discusses lessons learned and implications for social work education in California and other states.     

Understanding communities of neglectful parents: child caregiving networks and child neglect

This article focuses on family social networks and the community of caregivers of neglected children. If neglect is part of family functioning, who watches over the children? Using a case study approach, this study researched 12 children and their parents. Several concepts, such as multiple caregiving and kin keepers, revealed that study children were cared for by many people. Social network mapping used in this study indicated that families were not isolated from the larger community, had various forms of negative and positive social support, were low income, and were involved in substance abuse and domestic violence. Understanding the patterns that emerge from the complex web of family, friends, social service agencies, and the larger social community in which neglected children live can result in better community building.     

The role of emotions during the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt in light of repertoires

ABSTRACT

This article examines the role of emotions during the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt in the context of collective level emotions in mobilizations. Emotions are understood as a catalyst whose mechanism of action is performed through repertories. This article seeks to answer how emotions, having a triggering role, are performed through repertoires while accelerating mobilization against authoritarian orders, creating the intersection of individual and collective level emotions in public spheres of Tunisia and Egypt, and thus affecting the transnational diffusion of emotions. The significant reason to address emotions is to explain what stimulated the Arab Spring and how it spread over the region starting from Tunisia and Egypt. This article synthesizes two literatures: International Relations (IR) and social movements studies in light of emotions and components of repertoires which are as follows: collective action, collective identity, symbolic politics, network society and information politics.     

Three Wise Young Men,a Cyber Community and Music — Counselling As Social Action: Storying a Community of Care in the Aftermath of Violence

This article describes counselling practice as social action, reporting on a case of children witnessing community violence and its aftermath. Highlighted is the role of friends who made a stand of solidarity against such violence. Outsider witness practices helped recruit and grow a community of care for the client and his friends. This community of care was significantly enhanced by the involvement of a lawyer/musician/activist who composed a song with the three friends to take a stance against guns and violence in their society. Caring solidarity, generosity and doing hope together formed small but significant alliances against entrenched practices of violence.