Workshop on Human Potential (Lorraine Mazerolle, Rebecca Wickes, Suzanna Ramirez, University of Queensland)
Description
Lorraine Mazerolle, Professor; Rebecca Wickes, Lecturer; and Suzanna Ramirez, Research Fellow, The University of Queensland, will present, "The Australian Community Capacity Study (ACCS): Showcasing Research from a Longitudinal Study of Neighborhood Processes."
Abstract: This presentation describes the Australian Community Capacity Study (ACCS) and highlights two current areas of research activity. The ACCS is a longitudinal study of place that started in 2005. We use urban criminological theories to better understanding the spatial and temporal dynamics of community resilience, capacities, crime, disorder, and inter-group violence.
Dr Wickes will use the ACCS to examine how collective efficacy and neighboring behavior influences residents’ self-reported informal social control actions. Results demonstrate that collective efficacy does not enhance the likelihood that residents will engage in informal social control behaviors. Indeed, for some people, living in a collectively efficacious neighborhood decreases the odds that a resident will engage in informal social control actions to resolve a local problem. In contrast, high levels of neighboring behavior do predict informal social control actions. This is particularly true for when residents directly intervene and work informally with other residents to resolve a local problem. Our paper suggests that the strength of neighborhood networks is a more important determinant of informal social control actions than resident perceptions of their willingness to intervene in hypothetical problems.
Dr Ramirez will examine the neighbourhood context in relation to child abuse and neglect. In this paper, Dr Ramirez will explore the social context of child abuse monitoring and reporting, particularly where the role of the neighbourhood and neighbourhood conditions influence the monitoring of children. She investigates the dynamic role of social structures and collective neighbourhood processes in explaining the spatial and temporal variation in family related violence in Australia.
Bios: Lorraine Mazerolle is a Research Professor in the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) at the University of Queensland and an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow. She is also the Foundation Director and a Chief Investigator in the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security (CEPS), a Chief Investigator in the Drug Policy Modelling Program, and the ISSR “Policing and Security” Program Director. Professor Mazerolle leads a team of highly talented research scholars with expertise in experimental criminology, urban criminological theories, survey methods, advanced multi-level statistics and spatial statistics. She is the recipient of numerous US and Australian national competitive research grants on topics such as community regulation, problem-oriented policing, police technologies, civil remedies, street-level drug enforcement and policing public housing sites. Professor Mazerolle is a Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology, immediate past President of the Academy, foundation Vice President of the American Society of Criminology Division of Experimental Criminology and author of scholarly books and articles on policing, drug law enforcement, third party policing, regulatory crime control, displacement of crime, and crime prevention.
Dr. Rebecca Wickes holds a joint appointment with the School of Social Science as a teaching and research academic and the Institute for Social Science Research as a Research Fellow. She is the Chair of the Management Committee for the Australian Community Capacity study and is an Associate Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security (CEPS). Dr. Wickes is an urban criminologist and her research focuses on social relationships in urban communities and how changing patterns of social exchange influence and impact community regulation, informal social control and violent victimisation. Dr. Wickes is also developing an emerging profile in the area of ‘community resilience’ and prejudice motivated victimisation.
Dr. Suzanna Ramirez is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Science Research at The University of Queensland. Her areas of study include child maltreatment and the justice system, neighborhood effects of child maltreatment and wellbeing, neighborhood violence and collective action, informal social control of deviance, and immigrant community processes. Ramirez is also working with the National Security and Preparedness Survey particularly around citizen engagement and perceptions of terrorist and natural disasters. Ramirez is affiliated with the ARC Center for Excellence in Policing and Security.
