The proliferation of online neighborhood networks has significantly expanded the way neighbors interact. Recent work indicates that these platforms provide users with social benefits such as a sense of community and potential to mobilize but they may also be responsible for negative neighborhood mechanisms such as fear, tensions, and vigilantism. Still, their popularity calls for the need to better understand their role within the scope of neighborhood studies, including how to define and operationalize collective efficacy within these platforms, and their role in shaping individual perceptions of fear of neighborhood crime. This work seeks to address these issues by examining how online neighborhood networks influence attitudes of collective efficacy and fear of crime.

This mixed-methods research is divided into three studies. First, I conducted semi-instructed interviews to understand how online neighborhood network users conceptualize the meaning and function of these groups, and how traditional collective efficacy measures are perceived and understood in online neighborhood networks. Next, I applied the findings from my qualitative research to develop and validate an online neighborhood network efficacy scale by conducting both an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to determine a factor structure that addresses the construct. Lastly, I conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire and applied an inverse probability weight model to estimate the effect of online neighborhood network use on reported fear of neighborhood victimization and estimate a log-linear model for the effects of frequency and magnitude of use on reported fear.

This study contributes to the neighborhood studies’ literature in several ways. First, by providing a better understanding of online neighborhood networks’ mechanisms and users’ individual perceptions of their role in neighborhoods. Next, by developing an online neighborhood network efficacy scale that can be used to better determine online neighborhood networks’ role in neighborhood outcomes. Finally, by creating both a specific 3-dimension measure of ONN use, and by applying causal methodology approach to isolate the effect of ONN use in fear of neighborhood victimization.