Recent researches show the importance of informal social control on crime prevention, especially in cities. This research focuses oncrime prevention through informal control by looking at the level of collective efficacy of housing residents. Collective efficacy, is the willingness of citizens to intervene for the common good in the surrounding environment to prevent crime in the community. This study aims to describe the collective efficacy of citizens in the housing complexes and public housing in the City of Makassar. This research uses descriptive statistical analysis. There were 480 respondents taken as samples among housing residents. This study found that the level of collective efficacy of housing residents is generally. There is no difference of collective efficacy between the residents of public housing and those of housing complexes. This causes informal social control unable to prevent crime, which tends to increase from year to year in the City of Makassar.Keywords: collective efficacy, crime prevention, housing resid