Sejauh ini studi empiris mengenai kejahatan di Indonesia masih berfokus pada pengaruh faktor-faktor ekonomi, seperti tingkat pengangguran, tingkat pendapatan, dan kemiskinan. Modal sosial dapat meningkatkan tingkat kepercayaan antaranggota masyarakat dan keterlibatan masyarakat dalam tindakan kolektif. Dalam teori rational choice, modal sosial berperan meningkatkan probabilitas seseorang tertangkap ketika melakukan tindak kejahatan dan mempermudah koordinasi masyarakat dengan aparat penegak hukum formal, seperti polisi. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan pengaruh modal sosial terhadap jumlah kejahatan di Indonesia dengan menggunakan density of association sebagai proxy modal sosial, serta angka perceraian dan migrasi risen masuk sebagai proxy disorganisasi sosial atau menggambarkan “ketiadaan modal sosial”. Terdapat empat kelompok asosiasi yang digunakan, yaitu Putnam-Type Groups, Olson-Type Groups, Recreation-Type Group, dan Cooperative Group. Dengan menggunakan model regresi negative binomial, penelitian ini menemukan bahwa modal sosial secara signifikan dapat menurunkan jumlah kejahatan total, kejahatan properti, dan kejahatan kekerasan di Indonesia.

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So far, empirical studies about crime in Indonesia are still focused on the influence of economic factors, such as unemployment, income levels and poverty. Social capital can increase the level of trust among community members and community involvement in collective action. According to the theory of rational choice, social capital has a role in increasing the probability of someone being caught when committing a crime and facilitating community coordination with formal law enforcement officers, such as the police. This study aims to find the effect of social capital on the number of crimes in Indonesia by using density of association as a proxy for social capital, and divorce and internal migration rate as proxies for social disorganization or describing the "absence of social capital". There are four association groups that have been used in this research, namely Putnam-Type Groups, Olson-Type Groups, Recreation-Type Groups, and Cooperative Groups. By using a negative binomial regression model, this study found that social capital can significantly reduce the number of total crime, property crime, and violent crime in Indonesia.