Criminal Careers and Communities in the United States: An Identity Network Perspective

Gender, race, and community, and space all provide important filters for a person’s contact with the criminal justice system. Cynthia Baiqing Zhang and Meredith L. Ille analyze current and former inmates through interviews, focus group discussions, and surveys to better understand criminal behavior. This book is vital to understanding the course of a criminal career from the offense to the decision to desist from crime, and reentry into the community, as it reveals mechanisms through which inmates’ identities and social networks interact. This identity network perspective combines identity theory and social network analysis to better understand, predict, and mediate criminal behavior. This book is of interest to those studying criminology, criminal justice, sociology, and psychology.

Cynthia Zhang is researcher with Evergreen Campus LLC. Meredith Ille is doctoral student at the University of Oklahoma.