Social Capital and Satisfaction with Crime Control in Urban China

Abstract

By applying the symbolic perspective to the context of Chinese urban society, this paper examines how three dimensions of social capital—social trust, social bonds, and social cohesion—are associated with satisfaction with crime control among Chinese urban residents. The individual-level data from the 2005 China General Social Survey (CGSS) are linked with provincial-level data on arrest rates and economic and demographic characteristics. The analysis shows that bridging trust and neighborhood cohesion are significantly positively related to satisfaction with crime control. The effects of bonding trust and social bonds on satisfaction with crime control are not significant. The results provide partial support for the symbolic theoretical perspective and extend our understandings of the impact of diverse forms of social capital on crime control attitudes to a non-Western context.