Social support belongs to popular theoretical concepts used in different fields of study in order to delve into a variety of problems, including mental health issues, deviant behavior, and even the propensity to crime. In criminology, the theory of social support was first formulated by Cullen in the middle of the 1990s (Kort-Butler, 2017). According to the theory, the presence of social support and, importantly, supportive interpersonal relationships is central to the prevention of crime in different age groups.
Interestingly, the social support theory is drastically different from other theories that are aimed at finding the key source of crime. Based on the majority of popular theories, the propensity to crime is related to the lack of something positive (strong social bonds, self-control, etc.) or negative influences resulting in deviant behaviors learnt from parents or other family members (Kort-Butler, 2017; Turanovic, Reisig, & Pratt, 2015). Unlike the theories based on a negativist perspective of crime, the social support theory focuses on how positive things such as mutual assistance and supportive relationships reduce the risks of criminal activity (Cid & Martí, 2017). In this theory, social support is defined as “the process of transmitting human, cultural, and social capital between individuals and larger social units” that can take place on different organizational levels (Kort-Butler, 2017, p. 1). Personally, I think that the assumptions informing the theory help to take a fresh look at crime and its sources.
Apart from its effects on crime prevention, the theory can help to improve social health in general since to use it means to create the environment, in which any person has access to social resources. However, the quality of such resources should be strictly controlled and monitored since in some cases, social support comes from people interested in criminalization, which complicates the issue. According to Kort-Butler (2017), social support can play a significant role in the social learning of delinquent behavior. For instance, the presence of criminal propensity sometimes depends on whether a person receives social support from individuals engaged in criminal activity (Baron, 2015; Kort-Butler, 2017). Taking that into consideration, although the theory is supposed to have positive consequences in terms of both crime rates and available community resources, social support can also come from unwanted sources.