RACIALLY HOMOPHILOUS SOCIAL TIES AND INFORMAL SOCIAL CONTROL

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12066
• Date: 01 May 2015
• Published date: 01 May 2015

RACIALLY HOMOPHILOUS SOCIAL TIES

AND INFORMAL SOCIAL CONTROL∗

BARBARA D. WARNER,1KRISTIN SWARTZ,2

and SHILA REN ´

EHAWK

1

1Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Georgia State University

2Department of Justice Administration, University of Louisville

KEYWORDS: communities and crime, informal social control, social disorganization

theory, interracial friendships, racial homophily

Social disorganization theory argues that racial/ethnic heterogeneity is a key neigh-

borhood characteristic leading to social disorganization and, consequently, higher lev-

els of crime. Heterogeneity’s effect is argued to be a result of its fragmentation of social

ties along racial/ethnic lines, which creates racially homophilous social networks with

few ties bridging racial/ethnic groups. Most studies of social ties in social disorganiza-

tion models, however, have examined their quantity and left unaddressed the extent to

which ties are within or across different racial groups. This study goes beyond previous

studies by examining the effects of both racially homophilous and interracial friendship

networks on informal social control. Using multilevel models and data from 66 neigh-

borhoods with approximately 2,300 respondents, we found that heterogeneity actually

increased the average percentage of residents with interracial friendship networks, but

the percentage of residents with interracial networks decreased the likelihood of in-

formal social control. In contrast, the percentage of residents with White racially ho-

mophilous networks increased the likelihood of informal social control. Examining

the microcontext of individuals’ networks, however, we found residents with interracial

ties reported higher likelihoods of informal social control and that this effect was en-

hanced in neighborhoods with higher percentages of non-White racially homophilous

networks.

Informal social control is the key theoretical concept in contemporary social disorga-

nization theory (Kornhauser, 1978), and empirical indicators of it have been found to

be important in accounting for variation among neighborhood crime rates (Bellair and

Browning, 2010; Elliott et al., 1996; Mazerolle, Wickes, and McBroom, 2010; Morenoff,

Sampson, and Raudenbush, 2001; Sampson, 1997, 2012; Sampson and Groves, 1989;

Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls, 1997). Informal social control refers broadly to

∗This project was supported, in part, by Grant No. 1999-IJ-CX -0052 awarded by the National Insti-

tute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view in this article

are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the

U.S. Department of Justice. Direct correspondence to Barbara D. Warner, Department of Crim-

inal Justice and Criminology, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 4018, Atlanta, GA 30302-4018

(e-mail: warner@gsu.edu).

C2015 American Society of Criminology doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12066

CRIMINOLOGY Volume 53 Number 2 204–230 2015 204

RACIALLY HOMOPHILOUS SOCIAL TIES 205

behaviors engaged in by residents to control inappropriate public behaviors within their

neighborhood.1

Social disorganization theory argues that neighborhood structural characteristics, such

as poverty, residential mobility, and racial/ethnic heterogeneity, affect neighborhood pro-

cesses that make informal social control more or less likely (Bursik and Grasmick, 1993;

Kornhauser, 1978; Shaw and McKay, 1929). Within the systemic model of social disorga-

nization theory, the key neighborhood process affected by these structural characteristics

is the extent to which residents develop neighborhood social ties. More specifically,

poverty and residential mobility are hypothesized to affect the quantity of social ties,

whereas racial/ethnic heterogeneity is argued to affect the breadth of ties or the extent to

which friendship ties bridge racial/ethnic divisions in the neighborhood. Thus, the theory

argues that both the number of ties and the breadth of social ties consequently affect the

neighborhood’s capacity to provide informal social control and prevent crime. Empirical

studies of social ties within this literature, however, have generally been restricted to the

examination of the number of ties or frequency of interaction, with little to no attention

directed at who the ties are among. This limited assessment of social ties has left unad-

dressed the important theoretical role of the breadth of social ties. We address this limita-

tion by examining whether racially homophilous networks within neighborhoods impede

informal social control and/or interracial networks enhance informal social control.

Through our examination of the percentage of both racially homophilous and interra-

cial networks within neighborhoods, this article also sheds light on the underexamined

process through which neighborhood racial heterogeneity is hypothesized to affect the

likelihood of informal social control. The theoretical underpinnings of the relationship

between neighborhood racial heterogeneity and informal social control within social dis-

organization theory have not been well developed; to date, few quantitative studies have

attempted to examine carefully how neighborhood racial heterogeneity affects informal

social control. In addition to our focus on interracial networks at the neighborhood level,

however, we also acknowledge the connection of our work to the blossoming literature in

political science and social psychology on the effects of individuals’ interracial/ethnic ties

on trust and collective behavior (Putnam, 2007). We recognize that neighborhood-level

patterns can emerge from, or be moderated by, microlevel interactions. Therefore, we

also examine whether the likelihood of informal social control varies for residents with

and without interracial ties, and whether the effect of racially homophilous networks

on informal social control at the neighborhood level is moderated by residents’ own

interracial ties. In this way, this article also adds to the emerging literature on the effects

of interracial/ethnic ties on collective capacity.

1. Another theory rooted in social disorganization theory—collective efficacy theory—views the con-

cept of informal social control in terms of residents’ expectations for informal social control. This

perspective downplays the role of social ties in determining expectations for informal social con-

trol and is thus less relevant to the theoretical issue central to this article. Nonetheless, we note

that both versions of social disorganization theory measure informal social control in similar ways,

and therefore, empirical findings from collective efficacy studies are also relevant. Furthermore, al-

though we believe that an argument could be made for the relevance of the role of interracial ties

from either interpretation of informal social control measures, the systemic model has most clearly

laid out the theoretical connections between neighborhood structure and racially homophilous

ties—hence, our arguments are presented within a systemic model.