Abstract
A social capital theory of crime proposes that both excessively high and low levels of trust lead to crime. Low levels of trust are associated with predatory forms of street crime, while high levels of trust can lead to white collar crime and political corruption. This paper explores the role of social capital and trust in the causation of under and upperworld forms of crime in the rapidly changing circumstances of the Czech Republic. Connections between social capital and crime are the product not only of the transition to a market economy, but also of the problems of the pre-transition Czech society.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes and references
See Joachim J. Savelsberg, "Crime, Inequality, and Justice in Eastern Europe: Anomie, Domination and Revolutionary Change," in John Hagan and Ruth D. Peterson (eds.), Crime and Inequality(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995).
James Coleman, Foundations of Social Theory (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990).
John Hagan, Crime and Disrepute (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 1994).
Jiri Kabele, "Ceskoslovensko na ceste od kapitalismu ke kapitalismu: Pokus o participativni sociologii," Sociologicky Casopis 1992 (28:1), 4–21.
But see John Hagan et al. (1995).
Jiri Kabele, "Ceskoslovensko na ceste od kapitalismu ke kapitalismu: Pokus o participativni sociologii," Sociologicky Casopis 1992 (28:1), 4–21.
Martin Myant, Transforming Socialist Economies: TheCase of Poland andCzechoslovakia (Brookfield, VT: Edward Elgar Publishing Company, 1993).
Jiri Kabele, "Ceskoslovensko na ceste od kapitalismu ke kapitalismu: Pokus o participativni sociologii," Sociologicky Casopis 1992 (28:1), 4–21.
Ivan Szelenyi, "Eastern Europe in an Epoch of Transition: Toward a Socialist Mixed Economy?" in Victor Nee and David Stark (eds.), Remaking the Economic Institutions of Socialism: China and Eastern Europe (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989: 209). See also David Stark, "Rethinking Internal Labor Markets: New Insights from a Comparative Perspective," American Sociological Review1986 (4), 492-504.
Martin Myant, The Czechoslovak Economy 1948-1988: The Battle for Economic Reform (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
Ivan Szelenyi, "Eastern Europe in an Epoch of Transition: Toward a Socialist Mixed Economy?" in Victor Nee and David Stark (eds.), Remaking the Economic Institutions of Socialism: China and Eastern Europe (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989).
J.R. Haberstroh, "Eastern Europe: Growing Energy Problems," East European Economies Post-Helsinki (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1977). See John N. Stevens, "Czechoslovakia at the Crossroads: The Economic Dilemmas of Communism in Postwar Czechoslovakia," East European Monographs, No. CLXXXVI (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985).
Martin Myant, Transforming Socialist Economies: The Case of Poland and Czechoslovakia (Brookfield, VT: Edward Elgar Publishing Company, 1993); John N. Stevens, "Czechoslovakia at the Crossroads: The Economic Dilemmas of Communism in Postwar Czechoslovakia," East European Monographs, No. CLXXXVI (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985).
J.P. Zoeter, "Eastern Europe: The Growing Hard Currency Debt," East European Economies Post-Helsinki (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1977). See John N. Stevens, "Czechoslovakia at the Crossroads: The Economic Dilemmas of Communism in Postwar Czechoslovakia," East European Monographs, No. CLXXXVI (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985).
Ivan Szelenyi, "Eastern Europe in an Epoch in Transition: Toward a Socialist Mixed Economy?" in Victor Nee and David Stark (eds.), Remaking the Economic Institutions of Socialism: China and Eastern Europe (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989).
Martin Myant, Transforming Socialist Economies: The Case of Poland and Czechoslovakia (Brookfield, VT: Edward Elgar Publishing Company, 1993).
Jacques Rupnik, L'autre Europe: Crise et fin du communisme(Paris: Editions Odile Jacob, 1990).
B. Pesek, Gross National Product of Czechoslovakia in Monetary and Real Terms 1946-58(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965: 3).
Janos Kornai, The Economics of Shortage (Amsterdam: North Holland, 1980).
Ivan Szelenyi, "Eastern Europe in an Epoch in Transition: Toward a Socialist Mixed Economy?" in Victor Nee and David Stark (eds.), Remaking the Economic Institutions of Socialism: China and Eastern Europe (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989).
Ivan Szelenyi, "Eastern Europe in an Epoch in Transition: Toward a Socialist Mixed Economy?" in Victor Nee and David Stark (eds.), Remaking the Economic Institutions of Socialism: China and Eastern Europe (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989).
Nicholas Barr, "The Forces Driving Change," in Nicholas Barr (ed.), Labor Markets and Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe (Washington, D.C.: Oxford University Press, 1994: 87).
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Review of the Labor Market in the Czech Republic (Paris: OECD 1995: 9).
Alena Nesporova, "Recent Labor Market Developments in Former Czechoslovakia," in Marwin Jackson, Jeno Koltay and Wouter Biesbrouck (eds.), Unemployment and Evolving Labor Markets in Central and Eastern Europe (Brookfield: Avebury, 1995). See also Saul Estrin, "The Inheritance," in Nicholas Barr (ed.), Labor Markets and Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe(Washington, D.C.: Oxford University Press, 1994).
Kamil Janacek, "Unemployment and the Labor Market in Former Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic," in Marwin Jackson, Jeno Koltay, and Wouter Biesbrouck (eds.), Unemployment and Evolving Labor Markets in Central and Eastern Europe (Brookfield: Avebury, 1995).
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Review of the Labor Market in the Czech Republic (Paris: OECD 1995, 111).
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Review of the Labor Market in the Czech Republic (Paris: OECD 1995, 51).
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Review of the Labor Market in the Czech Republic (Paris: OECD 1995, 55).
Voslenskii, 1984; Nicholas Barr, "The Forces Driving Change," in Nicholas Barr (ed.), Labor Markets and Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe (Washington, D.C.: Oxford University Press, 1994).
Detelina Radoeva, "Kinship in the Lives of Contemporary Bulgarians," Sociological Problems 1993 (2), 37–51; Maria Los, "Economic Crimes in Communist Countries," in Israel L. Barak-Glantz and Elmer H. Johnson (eds.), Comparative Criminology(Beverly Hills: Sage, 1983); Maria Los, Communist Ideology, Law, and Crime(New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989); Andrzej E. Marek, "Organized Crime in Poland," in Robert J. Kelley (ed.), Organized Crime: A Global Perspective(Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1986); Lydia S. Rosner, The Soviet Way of Crime: Beating the System in the Soviet Union and the USA(South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey, 1986); Joachim J. Savelsberg, "Crime, Inequality, and Justice in Eastern Europe: Anomie, Domination and Revolutionary Change," in John Hagan and Ruth D. Peterson (eds.), Crime and Inequality(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995).
Janos Kornai, The Economics of Shortage (Amsterdam: North Holland, 1980).
Martin Myant, Transforming Socialist Economies: The Case of Poland and Czechoslovakia (Brookfield, VT: Edward Elgar Publishing Company, 1993: 11).
Jacques Rupnik, L'autre Europe: Crise et fin du communisme (Paris: Editions Odile Jacob, 1990: 217).
Barr et al. (1994: 98).
Philip Dimitrov, "Rebuilding a Civil Society," Wall Street Journal (Europe), March 23, 1992.
Cited in Craig L. Parker, Jr., "Rising Crime Rates and the Role of Police in the Czech Republic," Police Studies 1993 (16: Summer), 39.
Cited in Craig L. Parker, Jr., "Rising Crime Rates and the Role of Police in the Czech Republic," Police Studies 1993 (16: Summer), 40.
Barr et al. (1994: 99).
Alena Mareshova and Miroslav Sceinost, "Soucasny Stavkriminality v Ceske Republice," Sociologicky Casopis 1994 (30:2), 167–178.
See Craig L. Parker, Jr., "Rising Crime Rates and the Role of Police in the Czech Republic," Police Studies 1993 (16: Summer), 41.
Cited in Craig L. Parker, Jr., "Rising Crime Rates and the Role of Police in the Czech Republic," Police Studies 1993 (16: Summer), 40.
Detelina Radoeva, "Kinship in the Lives of Contemporary Bulgarians," Sociological Problems 1993 (2), 37–51.
Barr et al. (1994).
Richard Rose, "Toward a Civil Economy?" Studies in Public Policy, 1992 (No. 200), Centre for the Study of Public Policy, University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, Scotland).
D.M.W.N. Hitchens, J.E. Birnie, J. Hamar, K. Wagner, A. Zemplinerova, Competitiveness of Industry in the Czech Republic and Hungary (Brookfield: Avebury, 1995).
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Review of the Labor Market in the Czech Republic (Paris: OECD, 1995).
Parker (1992).
Jan Hartl, "Stara a nova temata socialni politiky," Sociologicky Casopis 1991 (27:5), 568–576.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Review of the Labor Market in the Czech Republic (Paris: OECD, 1995: 259). See also Benacek, 1994.
V. Benacek, "Small Businesses and Private Entrepreneurialship During Transition: The Case of the Czech Republic," CERGE-EI Working Papers, 1994 (No. 53).
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Review of the Labor Market in the Czech Republic (Paris: OECD, 1995: 25).
Ivan Szelenyi, "Social Inequalities in State Socialist Redistributive Economies," International Journal of Comparative Sociology 1978 (19), 63–87.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Review of the Labor Market in the Czech Republic(Paris: OECD, 1995: 19).
Zoltan D. Barani, "Nobody's Children: The Resurgence of Nationalism and the Status of Gypsies in Post-Communist Eastern Europe," in Joan Serafin (ed.), East-Central Europe in the 1990s (San Francisco: Westview Press, 1994: 242).
Jiri Burianek, "The Relatively Minimal Anomic Czech Transition: The Case of Prague," Czech Sociological Review 1994 (2: Fall), 229–247.
David M. Crowe, A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994: 64).
Rocks (1993).
Parker (1992).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hagan, J., Radoeva, D. Both too much and too little: From elite to street crime in the transformation of the Czech Republic. Crime, Law and Social Change 28, 195–211 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008269114252
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008269114252