The Dark Side of Social Capital: Race, Recidivism, and “Reintegration”

In investigating the problem of racial disparity in the recidivism statistics where the two minority groups—the Malays and Indians—had been historically disproportionately represented relative to the Chinese majority, the findings of the study led to a deconstruction of the conventional inference that the under-representation of the Chinese in the recidivism statistics implied successful mainstream reintegration and criminal desistance. Extending the social capital theoretical framework to the criminal landscape, this study put forth the view, based on interviews with 30 gang members and former custodial officers, that the Chinese possession of more efficacious ethnic capital, accessed and activated in the context of their membership in Chinese secret societies, allowed for the resumption of criminal activities whilst capitalizing on the symbiosis that organized criminal subcultures had with legitimate institutions. The “dark side” of social capital, one that created “network closures,” was evident in the cultural propensity of the Chinese to mobilize “guanxi” (relationships) that bridged conventional social capital with criminal social capital. The net effect of this was the facilitation and concealment of their criminality, thus reducing their representation on their re-arrest and recidivism statistics.

Entrepreneurship Education in the Transformation of Incarcerated Individuals: A Review of the Literature and Future Research Directions

This article draws upon the theories of entrepreneurial cognition, planned behavior, and criminal desistance to understand the role of entrepreneurship education in the behavioral and cognitive transformation of incarcerated individuals. Specifically, this article considers how participation in an entrepreneurship education program should influence entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, cognitive transformation, and institutional misconduct. It suggests these changes are more likely to influence an incarcerated person’s entrepreneurial intentions and criminal desistance. The six propositions presented shed light on how an incarcerated individual’s willingness to change his or her attitudes and develop an entrepreneurial mind-set influence his or her behavior in prison and prepares him or her to prosper in a dynamic and complex world after release. This article argues that the study of one’s transformation while incarcerated through the discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities is likely to advance empirical and theoretical perspectives of the fields of entrepreneurship. The examination of how incarcerated persons deal with fear of failure, risk aversion, and identity, in particular, presents great opportunities for future research.

An Introduction to Gangs and Serious Youth Violence in the United Kingdom

This article introduces the special issue on UK gangs and youth violence. Written to coincide with the launch of the National Centre for Gang Research at the University of West London, this collection adds the voices of academics who have spent years researching serious violence to a conversation dominated by policymakers and media commentators. The authors examine trends in youth violence and offer a brief history of UK gang research before previewing the contribution of the seven empirical articles dealing with police gang databases, knife crime, county lines drug dealing, contextual safeguarding, offender mental health, gang disengagement and criminal desistance.

What I’d Tell My 16-Year-Old Self: Criminal Desistance, Young Adults, and Psychosocial Maturation

This study qualitatively explored how young adult men on probation or parole view the components of psychosocial maturation that contribute to criminal desistance. The authors conducted nine focus groups with 40 men on probation or parole, including seven groups with men aged 18 to 25 years. Two additional focus groups were conducted with older men (ages 29-60 years) to refine our evolving understanding. According to the participants, psychosocial maturation processes of personal growth, learning from mistakes, considering consequences before acting, developing and executing long-range plans, improving peer associations, and recognizing and responding to a motivating event all contributed to their desire to change their course of criminal offending. These components map well onto existing theories of psychosocial maturation and criminal desistance and lend further insight into how young adult men perceive the psychological, emotional, and cognitive factors that can support their desistance goals.