ABSTRACT
Ethnographic research often relates street violence to declining work conditions and communities. In particular, it focuses on how marginalized men do violence as a way to earn respect and maintain their manhood in arenas outside of work. However, these explanations miss the emotional properties within the immediate context of a conflict, ones that determine whether violence occurs or not. This chapter, then, analyzes street violence through Randall Collins’ micro theory of violence, which focuses on the management of a conflict’s emotional energy. Overall, it supports Collins’ argument that violence is hard to accomplish, and that only opponents manipulating the emotional energy in their favor can do violence. The data and analysis are based on field research conducted on drug market participants in a South Bronx neighborhood.
