NCJ Number
238330
Date Published
2011
Length
213 pages
Annotation
Based on an analysis of crime levels in U.S. cities over several years as well as the levels of social capital in these cities, this study examined whether there is a connection between a city's crime level and level of social capital.
Abstract
"Social capital" as commonly understood by social scientists entails trust-based relationships among people and diverse forms of civic engagement. Social capital potentially offers a powerful counter against the effects of social disorganization, anomie, and strain in communities; however, how social capital and social support theory can assist in ameliorating these problems in not yet clear. At least five patterns of association were found between crime (violent crime, property crime, and burglary) and the two trust-based social-capital measures. In one pattern, the fluctuation in the crime rate of a city/urban area was independent of the social-trust dimension; in a second pattern, the crime rate did not impact the social-trust dimension; in the third pattern, when crime rates declined over time, social trust increased; a fourth pattern indicated a declining level of social trust did not translate into higher crime rate for a city; and in a fifth pattern, crime and social trust were both relatively invariant over time in the city or MSA examined. The majority of the MSAs and cities fit the most commonly hypothesized relationship, i.e., when crime rates declined over time, social trust increased (third pattern). The second most common pattern was that the crime rate did not correlate with the social trust dimension (the second pattern). Relatively few cities manifested the first and fifth patterns. The research used quantitative methods to generate social capital measures and crime rates, and a comparative case study method was used to analyze the graphs developed. Extensive tables and figures, approximately 112 references, a subject index, and appended methodological supplements