Discriminant Validity of Perceptual Incivility Measures

• NCJ Number: 215818
• Journal: Justice Quarterly Volume: 23 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2006 Pages: 360-383
• Author(s): John L. Worrall
• Date Published: September 2006
• Length: 24 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study compared individual’s perceptions of the prevalence of incivilities to their estimates of neighborhood crime problem and to their personal victimization experiences.

Abstract

Overall, the results did not indicate a strong relationship between respondents’ perceptions of incivilities and their perceptions of crime. However, the analysis did reveal that individuals might not be capable of distinguishing between social incivilities (as opposed to physical incivilities) and personal victimization. The author posits that this finding may be due to the fact that many social incivility indicators in the survey represented criminal conduct and were thus effectively measuring perceived crime rather than perceived incivilities. The findings failed to support the premise of the “incivilities thesis” which links incivilities to public outcomes including fear of crime and perceptions of neighborhood conditions. Incivilities are described as “low-level breaches of community standards that signal erosion of conventionally accepted norms and values” and range from behaviors such as panhandling and public drunkenness to neglected buildings and abandoned vehicles. Data were drawn from a 1998 Bureau of Justice Statistics (U.S. Department of Justice) survey on criminal victimization and perceptions of community safety that was conducted in 12 cities around the United States. The analysis was based on the responses of 13,918 individuals who answered questions about their perceptions of incivilities in their neighborhoods, their perceptions about the prevalence of serious crime in their neighborhoods, and their personal victimization experiences. Data analysis involved the use of both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to test whether incivility measures enjoyed discriminant validity. Future research is necessary to further probe the relationship between incivilities and fear of crime measures. Tables, footnotes, references