Meta-analysis of social capital effect on crime tendencies

Social capital serves as a social deterrent and protector of society from harms, problems and social anomalies. Community presence, institutional and social trust, participation in collective rituals, strong social belonging, and emotional bonds between members of a community prevent the spread of crime and by creating an informal, spontaneous, normative monitoring mechanism, it prevents individuals from engaging in unconventional, immoral, and abnormal behaviors. The main purpose of this study is to study the effect of social capital on crime tendency.

The present study is a meta-analysis (quantitative) that its statistical population includes all researches from 2005 to 1397 (25 research documents) on the subject of the relationship between social capital and the tendency to crime. In this regard, 17 research papers in accordance with quantitative meta-analysis criteria were selected as a sample by intentional-judgmental sampling.

Findings show that there is a significant relationship between the variables of social participation (0.284), Social control (0.288), Social trust (0.315), Social cohesion (0.505), Police performance (0.436), Religious affiliations (0.238), Social awareness (0.378) and Social support (0.478) with crime tendency.

In total, social capital has been able to explain and predict 33.8% of changes in crime tendencies. Accordingly, by promoting social capital at the macro level (institutional-government and people), the middle (ethnic group, neighborhood and provincial) and micro (family, individuals and small groups) can reduce the context of individuals' willingness to commit criminal acts.