Criminal Behavior: Identity Salience, Social Networks, and/or Space?

• In Event: Trust, Social Networks, and Identity in Context

Abstract

This research is an investigation of ex-offenders’ identities in inner city of Phoenix with a mixed methods approach to add a social space (social networks) perspective to the study on criminal behavior.
Pilot
Through 20 interviews with ex-offenders recruited with a combined theoretical and random sampling method, it is to obtain a list of their identities. Selected interviewees will represent Phoenix’s inner city ex-offender population regarding residence in inner city communities, ethnicity, age, education, family background, offense, and release time. The interview questions will address identity extensivity and intensivity, interviewees’ “important people” and “time bound people,” and how interviewees understand the relationship between their identities and their crimes.
Formal Project
By comparing two models, it is to investigate the impact of connection between network positions, commitment, and identity salience, as well as spatial distribution on criminal behavior. “Criminal behavior” is the dependent variable in both models while “identity salience” and “spatial distribution” in inner city neighborhoods are predictors in the first and second models respectively. The interaction term of the two predictors will also be examined with 200 structured surveys conducted with interviewees recruited with the sampling strategy in the pilot project.

Author

• Cynthia Baiqing Zhang, Northern Arizona University