ABSTRACT

Drawing on the tenets of Social Disorganization Theory, we model the effects of neighborhood structural correlates on neighborhood crime perceptions in two urbanized Ghanaian communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Using 500 responses from a cross-sectional survey of 100 households, Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) is used to test a hypothesized model that incorporates measures of Residential Instability, Family Disruption, Social Support, and Neighborhood Crime Perceptions. Findings indicated that like other studies elsewhere, Residential Instability and Family Disruptions both have significant negative effects on community-level Social Support. However, Social Support had a positive effect on neighborhood crime perceptions. The findings in the study while providing some support for the SDT also raises questions about the influence of social support as an informal social control measure across varied spatial contexts.

摘要

利用社会解体理论的原则，我们模拟了撒哈拉以南非洲两个城市化加纳社区邻里结构相关性对邻里犯罪感知的影响。使用来自 100 个家庭的横断面调查的 500 个响应，偏最小二乘结构方程模型 (PLS-SEM) 用于测试一个假设模型，该模型包含住宅不稳定、家庭中断、社会支持和邻里犯罪感知的测量。研究结果表明，与其他地方的其他研究一样，居住不稳定和家庭中断都对社区层面的社会支持产生了显着的负面影响。然而，社会支持对邻里犯罪认知有积极影响。