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

Abstract

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.