Social Capital, Social Controls, and Desistance from Crime

• In Event: The Impact of Agency, Self, and Social Control Factors on Desistance from Crime

Abstract

Informal social controls facilitate desistance from crime through establishing specific bonds, such as employment, but desistance research has not sufficiently examined the complex sequencing of how an offender may secure employment in the first place. Both the ability to obtain employment and the factors instilling a personal connection to the workplace (i.e., establishing a social control) may be better understood by incorporating an additional theoretical perspective: social capital. Social capital articulates the importance of utilizing existing social resources, such as family ties or opportunities provided by friends, and could increase informal social controls to further facilitate desistance. The current study explores this connection through an examination of social capital, informal social control, offense, and additional control variables in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. Offenders were divided into different race and gender subsets, with lagged models examining how social capital and employment predict offending behavior. Findings provide opportunities to re-examine theoretical and practical influences of desistance, and elaborate on race and gender discrepancies in crime.

Author

• David Abeling-Judge, Barton College