Social Capital in the United States

Social Capital in relation to Crime and Race

Social Capital is included in the Encyclopedia of Race and Crime (1), beginning with: Few concepts in contemporary social sciences have been subject to such a high degree of scholarly and public attention as social capital. The term social capital has been given a plethora of meanings, often ambiguous or tautological in nature. Nevertheless, the richness of its definitions has made social capital an attractive, all-encompassing concept that resonates with various community social problems. Its appeal is largely credited to social capital’s analytical flexibility and a multitude of available empirical applications. In particular, a number of studies in the past decade have analyzed the correlation between communities’ levels of social capital and crime. This section outlines the definition and characteristics of the social capital concept as it has been developed in recent research literature. This is followed by a discussion of the concept’s relevance to the study of crime and its potential to affect and shape crime in minority communities.

Resources

Notes and References

1. Entry about Social Capital in the Encyclopedia of Race and Crime

See Also