Community capacity and the reporting of extortion victimization

ABSTRACT

The present research examines the impact of actualised collective efficacy on the probability of reporting extortion victimisation in Mexico. The mechanisms that encourage crime reporting have been an important area of study for years, however the specific factors that increase the probability of reporting extortion have eluded examination. The analysis extends the concept of collective efficacy, adapting it to contexts where actual informal social control effects can be examined. Therefore, the present study moves beyond perceptions and measures knowledge of, and participation in, such neighbourhood activities. The statistical analysis of 3,453 cases of extortion revealed that both actualised collective efficacy and participation in informal social control were strong predictors of reporting extortion victimisation to authorities after controlling for 20 other potentially confounding variables.

KEYWORDS:

• Collective efficacy
• crime reporting
• extortion
• Mexico

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The views expressed in this manuscript are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of State or any official or office in the U.S. Government.

2. “Collective efficacy is conceived of as a confluence of networks, values, and norms of reciprocity that combine to enable individuals and communities to intervene as a way of suppressing norm-deviant behaviour and of maintaining social order” (Brunton‐Smith et al., 2018, p. 608).

3. Exortion is operationalised in the ENVIPE surveys as the use of threats, coercion and trickery to demand money, goods or to make the victim do or stop doing something (INEGI, 2021a).

4. The role of citizens in combatting this crime in Mexico has been emphasised in recent years. In 2007 a call centre was created in Mexico City, staffed by citizen volunteers, to assist victims of telephonic extortion by providing guidance and gathering critical information on this type of extortion (Azaola, 2009).

5. Particularly in Mexico where police are seen as corrupt (Garduno, 2019).

6. Robbery was chosen as a proxy consistent with other studies (c.f. Gray et al., 2011).

7. Admittedly, operationalisation of “fear” of crime is subject to pitfalls. Concepts such as fear and worry can be confused (Hough, 2004). What this analysis controls for is a cognitive assessment of victimisation risk consistent with other previous studies (c.f. Rengifo & Bolton, 2012).

8. Number of assailants, presence of weapons, and injury to victim had missingness patterns that were potentially missing not at random (MNAR). This was compounded by the high degree of missingness (up to 92%) in the variables, which drastically reduced their utility in the multiple imputation procedure as well as their informativeness in the modelling. As such, the injury and weapon variables were excluded from the analysis to address these concerns.

9. Interactions between different variables, such as gender and fear of crime were explored initially for inclusion. However, no significant interactions were identified for inclusion in the final model.

10. The data for the GVIF column are Generalized VIFs developed by Fox and Monette (1992) while the rightmost column shows typical VIF values.

11. This refers to the internalisation of values related to the place of police in society as well as legal reasoning capacity that is connected to the school environment among others. Attitudes towards police is another component of legal socialisation that undergoes updating through interactions with police and other authorities such as through crime reporting programs (Trinkner & Tyler, 2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adam Dulin

Adam Dulin received his Ph.D. in Criminology in 2006. Since then he has worked in law enforcement while pursuing varied research interests. His current areas of research include crime victimization, policing and organized crime.