Validation of Perceived Community Safety Instrument Using Polytomous Rasch Measurement Model

Authors

  • Shahren Ahmad Zaidi Adruce The Institute of Borneo Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
  • Donald Stephen The Institute of Borneo Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
  • Dayang Siti Aisah Abang Suhaili The Institute of Borneo Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
  • Alexandra Nastassia John The Institute of Borneo Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
  • Abg Mohd Heikal Abg Othman The Institute of Borneo Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
  • Nur Adila Latif The Institute of Borneo Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Keywords:

Community Safety, Community Safety Instrument, Rash Analysis, Sense of Community, Crime and Social Disorder,

Abstract

This study involves the designing, development and testing of an instrument for capturing perception of community safety in rural communities in Sarawak, Malaysia. Data were collected in Kampung Pulo Salak, Kampung Sebayor, Kampung Tanjong Bako and Kampung Pinggan Jaya. A total of 172 households were interviewed and their responses were recorded accordingly for each item listed in the instrument. The study details the validation of community safety instrument using a Rasch analysis technique. The instrument was adapted, translated from various sources and customized to the need of local communities. The many items in the original instruments were shortlisted and subsequently tested to assess the quality of the measurement used. Aspects investigated include personal and community safety, crime and social disorder, police effectiveness and engagement as well as the sense of community. Based on results from Rasch analysis, thirty items from the initial fifty-one shortlisted items were retained. The final version of the instruments implicates good reliability and validity. There was no differential item functioning detected and the measure was proven to be unidimensional. This instrument is expected to benefit local authorities especially for the formulation of necessary interventions to ameliorate issues pertaining to community safety.

References

M. Willis, “Community safety in Australian Indigenous communities: Service providers’ perceptions,” Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2010. Retrieved from papers2://publication/uuid/BF6199B1-946B-4446-BF10- EB14C40F65B0

D. W. McMillan, “Sense of Community,” Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 315–325, 1996.

D. W. McMillan and D. M. Chavis, “Sense of community: A definition and theory,” Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 6– 23, 1986.

U.S. Department of Justice, Community Survey on Public Safety and Law Enforcement. Washington, DC 20530, 2014.

S. Christakopoulou, J. Dawson, and A. Gari, “The Community Wellbeing Questionnaire: Theoretical context and initial assessment of its reliability and validity,” Social Indicators Research, vol. 56, pp. 321– 351, Aug. 2001.

S. Foster and B. Giles-Corti, “The built environment, neighborhood crime, and constrained physical activity: An exploration of inconsistent findings,” Preventive Medicine, vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 241–251, 2008.

E. Gracia and J. Herrero, “Perceived neighborhood social disorder and attitudes toward reporting domestic violence against women,” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 737–752, 2007.

D. P. Rosenbaum, D. S. Lawrence, S. M. Hartnett, J. McDevitt, and C. Posick, “Measuring procedural justice and legitimacy at the local level: the police–community interaction survey,” Journal of Experimental Criminology, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 335–366, 2015.

P. L. Obst and K. M. White, “Revisiting the sense of community index: A confirmatory factor analysis,” Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 691–705, 2004.

S. E. Embretson and S. P. Reise, Item response theory, Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 2000.

M. Curtin, J. Browne, A. Staines, and I. J. Perry, “The Early Development Instrument: an evaluation of its five domains using Rasch analysis,” BMC Pediatrics, vol. 16, no. 1, p. 10, 2015.

T. Bond and C. M. Fox, Applying the Rasch Model: Fundamental Measurement in the Human Sciences, Third Edition. Taylor & Francis, 2015. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.my/books?id=s17LCQAAQBAJ

D. A. Revicki, W. H. Chen, and H. Gelhorn, “Rasch Model Analysis and Small Sample Size,” In D. Neasham & A. Cox (Eds.), Evidence Matters: Innovative approaches to database study design and analysis, Blue Bell, Pennsylvania: United BioSource Corporation, pp. 19–22, 2013.

J. P. Meyer, Applied Measurement with JMetrik. Taylor & Francis, 2014. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.my/books?id=MJbOAwAAQBAJ

J. M. Linacre, “What do infit and outfit, mean-square and standardized mean,” Rasch Measurement Transactions, vol. 16, no. 2, 878, 2002.

J. M. Linacre, “Detecting Multidimensionality: Which Residual Datatype Works Best?,” Journal of Outcome Measurement, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 266–283, 1998.

M. Wilson, Constructing measures: An item response modeling approach, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2005.

J. M. Linacre, A user’s guide to Winsteps Ministeps Rasch-model computer programs [version 3.74. 0], Chicago IL: Winstep.com, 2012.

J. F. Pallant, R. L. Miller, and A. Tennant, “Evaluation of the Edinburgh Post Natal Depression Scale using Rasch analysis,” BMC Psychiatry, vol. 6, p. 28, 2006.

E. V. Smith, “Understanding Rasch measurement: Detecting and evaluating the impact of multidimensionality using item fit statistics and principal component analysis of residuals,” Journal of Applied Measurement, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 205–231, 2002.

B. D Wright, “Reliability and separation,” Rasch Measurement Transactions, vol. 9, no. 4, p. 472, 1996. Retrieved from http://www.rasch.org/rmt/rmt94n.htm.

Downloads

Published

2017-12-07

How to Cite

Adruce, S. A. Z., Stephen, D., Abang Suhaili, D. S. A., John, A. N., Abg Othman, A. M. H., & Latif, N. A. (2017). Validation of Perceived Community Safety Instrument Using Polytomous Rasch Measurement Model. Journal of Telecommunication, Electronic and Computer Engineering (JTEC), 9(3-11), 125–129. Retrieved from https://jtec.utem.edu.my/jtec/article/view/3196

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 3-11: Computing Technology Towards A Sustainable Society

Section

Articles

License

TRANSFER OF COPYRIGHT AGREEMENT

The manuscript is herewith submitted for publication in the Journal of Telecommunication, Electronic and Computer Engineering (JTEC). It has not been published before, and it is not under consideration for publication in any other journals. It contains no material that is scandalous, obscene, libelous or otherwise contrary to law. When the manuscript is accepted for publication, I, as the author, hereby agree to transfer to JTEC, all rights including those pertaining to electronic forms and transmissions, under existing copyright laws, except for the following, which the author(s) specifically retain(s):

  1. All proprietary right other than copyright, such as patent rights
  2. The right to make further copies of all or part of the published article for my use in classroom teaching
  3. The right to reuse all or part of this manuscript in a compilation of my own works or in a textbook of which I am the author; and
  4. The right to make copies of the published work for internal distribution within the institution that employs me

I agree that copies made under these circumstances will continue to carry the copyright notice that appears in the original published work. I agree to inform my co-authors, if any, of the above terms. I certify that I have obtained written permission for the use of text, tables, and/or illustrations from any copyrighted source(s), and I agree to supply such written permission(s) to JTEC upon request.