This study disentangles the interrelationship between victimization and involvement in social control via participation in voluntary associations for crime prevention. There is a great deal of research on the effects of community organization on crime and relatively little on the effects of crime on community organization, despite the acknowledgement of the impact of crime on social capital in communities. The current study addresses this issue. In particular, this research sets out to contribute to the emerging literature in contextual analyses of victimization effects, social control, and community organization, first by examining the impact of crime on individuals’ decisions on their involvement in neighborhood crime prevention organizations (NWGs); second by revealing different change models for individuals who join, leave, and stay in these organizations; and finally by comparing how crime impacts individuals' household-protective behaviors and community-protective behaviors. Specifically, I consider different types of crime at both individual and neighborhood levels and individuals' perception of neighborhood safety.

Multiple sources of data, including a telephone survey of over 5,000 individuals from a 1990 Seattle study conducted by Miethe (1991), 1989-1991 crime statistics from the Seattle Police Department, and the 1990 Census, provide the best available information to examine the proposed research questions. The data are unique in that they include a longitudinal survey of individuals with retrospective questions, offer extensive information on individuals' decisions about community protection and household protection, and make it possible to construct the changes of each individual's status with neighborhood crime prevention associations. To develop various measures of neighborhood conditions including crime problems, data are extracted from the 1990 census and the Seattle Police Department. Building from the nature of the research questions and the availability of data, multilevel modeling techniques are used.

The findings highlight the importance of crime on individuals' involvement in NWGs. In particular, the results show that models of involvement are different from models of change in involvement status. Crime differentiates individuals' decisions to change their membership with NWGs and those who maintain their membership. Negative perceptions of neighborhood safety and a higher residential burglary rate in communities motivate individuals to join NWGs, while individuals' actual property crime victimization makes them leave NWGs. Crime also positively affects individuals’ household-protective behaviors. The impact of individuals' NWG involvement on their household-protective behaviors, however, is only significant for the joiners. Joiners in crime prevention associations are more likely to engage in household-protective behaviors as well.