The Role of Civic Leagues in Connecting Neighborhoods with City Resources: Exploring the Relationship between Parochial and Public Control

• In Event: Exploring the Mechanisms Underlying Community Social Organization

Abstract

Recently, social disorganization theorists have begun to pay increasing attention to the role of institutions in understanding neighborhood rates of crime. For example, in his 2002 Presidential address to the American Society of Criminology, Sampson stressed the importance of institutions. He argued that, institutions matter because they are “keys to generating social goods…and collective efficacy” (2002: 221). One role that local organizations may play in generating goods is connecting the neighborhood to the larger city. Using data from surveys of and interviews with civic league presidents in a southeastern city we explore the civic league activism and crime, in particular how this local organization can enhance parochial and public control.

Authors

• Ruth Triplett, Old Dominion University

• Garland White, Old Dominion University

• Randy Gainey, Old Dominion University