A New Framework For Crime Deterrence in the Pandemic Era: Leveraging Collective Efficacy to Combat Rising Gun Violence

Abstract

This thesis probes the origins and causes of the spike in shooting incidents and homicides that primarily occurred during the summer of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic raged in the United States. Using collective efficacy as an analytic framework, this thesis demonstrates that five factors were integral to the increase in shootings incidents and homicides: exacerbated concentrated disadvantage, widespread residential instability, social alienation, the closure of community institutions and fraying relationships between communities of color and law enforcement. Two of these factors, concentrated disadvantage and residential instability, were provided by Robert Sampson, the progenitor of the theory of collective efficacy. The other three -- social alienation, the closure of community institutions and fraying relationships between communities of color and law enforcement -- are synthesized with collective efficacy by this thesis. This thesis argues that collective efficacy is mediated by these five phenomena and that the pandemic and high-profile instances of police brutality have weakened collective efficacy by detrimentally impacting the five factors listed. Thus, in turn, the erosion of collective efficacy has led to an increase in shootings and homicides. Having identified collective efficacy as a salient and multidimensional influence, this thesis seeks to provide policy solutions that consider the root causes of crime and offer public safety strategies that do not wholly rely on law enforcement. Collective efficacy should be a basic tenet of crime policy. This thesis hopes to contribute to a movement to convince government officials and policymakers that collective efficacy and community empowerment are integral to targeting the root causes of crime.