Testing the Relationship Between Involvement and Perceived Neighborhood Safety

This article examines the association between social and community involve-ment and perceived neighborhood safety for residents of a relatively disad-vantaged area of a medium-sized Canadian city. Data are from a survey of 918 local residents who are in midlife (35 to 64 years of age). A specialized regression technique for categorical dependent variables is used that is sensi-tive to variations. Even using this technique and in contrast to some of the existing literature (with the exception of length of residence and trust in neighbors), our findings do not support an association between involvement and perceived safety. Rather, attention is drawn to the roles of perceived health and perceived stress as well as local area perceptions. The absence of significant relationships with most measures of involvement challenges the idea that involvement in one’s community decreases fear and increases feel-ings of safety