Social capital and persistent criminal behavior an empirical test of the reciprocal relationships

Abstract

Criminological research has identified both stability and change in criminal behavior over time. While most youth mature out of delinquency in their late teens and early adulthood, there is a small group of individuals whose criminal behavior persist into young adulthood and beyond, oftentimes increasing in both frequency and seriousness. Criminologists are confronted with the question of why some youth continue their criminal offending over time, when the majority of their peers have made the transition to conformity. This is a critical question not only because it leads to the discovery of protective factors, but also because it points to risk factors for recidivism and persistent offending. While individual factors such as biological, psychological characteristics are important to consider, social capital such as family relationships, peer networks and opportunities for a conventional life are essential for us to evaluate in order to explain stability and change in criminal behavior over time. Although prior research has shown that prior delinquency is a stable predictor of future delinquency, the intervening mechanism of this linkage has not been adequately studied. It is not clear to what extent prior delinquency and important social capital variables, such as relationships with family and friends, are related to criminal behavior in adolescence and adulthood. Furthermore, most of the previous longitudinal research are based on samples of “average” or “typical” offenders and thus fails to study serious offenders who, arguably, may be more like to continue or even escalate their antisocial involvement as they enter adulthood. Consequently, previous research findings may not be generalized to the small group of persistent and serious offenders who are known to be responsible for most crime in general, and most serious crime in particular (Moffitt, 1997, Hagan, 1993).