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Research
Health and wellbeing

Social Capital 2025: The case for strengthening social bonds to prevent crime

26 Feb 2025

In this paper, Adam Coutts and Mags Lesiak examine the relationship between social capital and crime.

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The case for strengthening social bonds to prevent crime is concerned with a fundamental question: whether a person’s social capital reduces the risk that they will break the law. It recommends that policy interventions aimed at reducing crime should recognise that environmental design and collective efficacy both affect criminality, as well as the interplay between these and a person’s moral choices.

This paper is part of the Social Capital 2025 series, published by Demos in collaboration with Local Trust and 3ni.

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