Collective Guardianship, Reactive and Proactive

Guardianship, a key element of informal social control, is central to two influential theories in criminology and sociology: routine activity theory and collective efficacy. A variety of underlying mechanisms inform individual choices to serve as a guardian. Two distinct forms, reactive and proactive, should be distinguished. In reactive guardianship, an individual or a small group responds to an ongoing criminal incident or a potentially harmful situation. People balance prosocial motivation to help others against safety and social costs associated with intervening. The psychological literature on bystander intervention and prosociality, along with research on personal safety, physical prowess, and social and moral attitudes, can illuminate the complex decision-making processes underlying reactive guardianship. In proactive guardianship, community members come together to improve public safety, such as by organizing block watches. It requires ongoing participation rather than a one-shot reactive decision to intervene. A challenge is to overcome the “free rider” problem of individuals who benefit from improved public safety but do not contribute to it. Collective efficacy theory and the economics literature on public goods provide frameworks for identifying factors that influence individual choices to contribute. These include willingness to contribute, knowledge that others are contributing, and active social approval of contributors and disapproval of noncontributors.