Social capital and the nonprofit infrastructure; an ecological study of child maltreatment

Abstract

Child maltreatment is a significant social problem that responds to neighborhood conditions, including disorder and support. Using administrative sources with the census response rate and geocoded nonprofit tax forms in a cross-sectional ecological design (N = 443), this article explores two understudied supportive factors in neighborhoods: aggregate social capital and nonprofit organizations. A series of Poisson models show aggregate social capital and nonprofit density are negatively related to child maltreatment rates, while the relationship between social capital and child maltreatment rates varies by the number of nonprofits present in the neighborhood. The results provide new insights into the ecology of child maltreatment and illustrate the importance of norms and formal organizations when addressing collective action problems.