Social Support Theory: Do Something for Our Citizens

• In Event: A Criminologist's Life: Essays in Honor of the Criminological Legacy of Francis T. Cullen

Abstract

In this chapter, we evaluate the significance of Francis T. Cullen’s contribution to theoretical criminology. We first recalled the formation and background of social support theory during the renaissance years of liberalism in the early days of the 1990s and the rise of one of the top criminology Ph.D. programs in the nation: Division of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati. Few criminological ideas are explicit in their link to the progressive crime control agenda as social support theory, which calls for creating a society with more social support to at-risk youths, families, and communities. Then we paraphrase social support theory and its impact on criminological research in the next twenty plus years. We believe that social support theory advances crime prevention by advocating doing something for our citizens. The theory resonates with Americans’ personal and imagined experience and it leads to specific policies that are humane and efficacious. We conclude that as an open and evolving theory, social support theory holds a great deal of promise.

Authors

• Liqun Cao, University of Cincinnati

• Velmer S. Burton, Jr., University of Arkansas at Little Rock