Misperceived Neighborhood Values and Informal Social Control.

Neighborhood informal social control has been found to be an important protective factor against a variety of social problems including crime and delinquency. Much of the current research examining informal social control within community-crime prevention models focuses on shared values as a foundation for informal social control (e.g., Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls 1997). Drawing on the prevention literature that focuses on social norms and their misperceptions (i.e., the "social norms approach," Perkins and Berkowitz, 1986; Perkins 1991;1997), this study examines the role of misperceived neighborhood values on the perception of the likelihood of informal social control. Findings show that misperceptions of values are better predictors of perceptions of informal social control than actual variation in neighborhood values, social ties, or faith in the police. The results are discussed in relation to current findings in social disorganization theory, and crime prevention strategies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]