Gangstering Grants: Bringing Power to Collective Efficacy Theory

Abstract

How do nonprofit organizations attempt to facilitate collective efficacy? Through an inductive ethnographic case study of efforts to reduce gang violence in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago, this study shows the importance of power and funding competition. Specifically, nonprofits’ efforts to facilitate collective efficacy depended on (1) strategic actions to manage competitors, and (2) their position in the city political field. Based on these findings, this article refines collective efficacy theory by integrating power relations and governance as forces that fundamentally shape neighborhood crime control efforts. The article concludes by discussing the implications for efforts to better integrate nonprofits, race, and the state into studies of collective efficacy and neighborhood crime control.