Control Theory
Download
Report
Transcript Control Theory
Control Theories
Control Theory is different
Most other theories assume that people naturally obey the law and
that special forces drive people to commit crime
– Biological
– Psychological
– Social
Control theory is different
– Assumes that people would commit crimes if left to their own
devices
– Crime caused by weaknesses in restraining forces
– NOT by strength of driving forces
Early control theories
Reiss – personal and social controls
– Personal controls thru ego and superego
– Failure to submit to social controls
Skipping school, disciplinary problems
Toby – control through “stake in conformity”
– Students who do well in school have better prospects, thus have
more to lose
– Contagion through peer support
Nye – social control through family
– Direct control through punishment
– Internal control - conscience
– Indirect control (ID with parents & others)
– Control depends on availability of means to satisfy needs
Matza – “Delinquency and Drift”
Most delinquents not essentially different from non-D’s
– D’s engage in law-abiding behavior most of the time
– Most D’s usually grow out of delinquency
Drift: Weakening of the moral bind of the law
– D’s do not reject conventional mores but neutralize them with excuses
and justifications
– “Sense of irresponsibility” – can still commit crimes and consider self
guiltless
– “Sense of injustice” – wrongly dealt with by the CJ system
Once bond is weakened, positive causes take over that make the juvenile
choose delinquent behavior
– D’s beset by hopelessness and lack of control over future
– D’s gain a sense of power through acting
BUT -- serious D’s may not be “drifters” - may be committed or compulsive
Hirschi – Social Control Theory
Individuals tightly bonded to conventional social groups less
likely to be delinquent
– Family
– School
– Non-delinquent peers
There are four elements of the social bond
– Attachment: affection for and sensitivity to others
– Commitment: to conventional society
– Involvement: in conventional activities
– Belief: in obeying conventional rules
Hirschi’s Test of Social Control Theory -Self-report survey of 4,000 junior & senior-high students
Findings (attachment to parents, school, peers)
– Boys more attached to parents report less delinquency
– Boys less attached or successful in school report more delinquency
– Boys more attached to peers reported less delinquency
– Attachment to D peers can increase D if other controls not in place
Findings (commitment, involvement, belief)
– D’s have low educational and occupational aspirations
– The higher the aspiration, the lower the D
– Youths who spent more time working, dating, watching TV, reading, etc.
had higher D (inconsistent with control theory)
– But - youths who reported being bored, spent less time on homework,
more time talking to friends & riding around in cars had higher D
– Youths who thought it o.k. to break the law reported more delinquency
– No support for a “lower-class culture” - D beliefs held by academically
incompetent youths from all strata
Hirschi’s control theory - issues
Hirschi tested only for relatively trivial misconduct - few seriously
delinquent youths in the sample
Are different causal processes at work for serious delinquency?
– Hirschi’s delinquency takes little time - it is not an all-consuming
lifestyle, such as an active criminal gang
– Hirschi assumes that control applies to all D behavior, trivial and
serious
– Hirschi assumes that D behavior does not need a specific cause - it
is “naturally motivated”, requires no explanation other than it is “fun”
Are shootings “natural”?
Do individual pathologies matter? Aggression?
Gottfredson and Hirschi -General Theory of Crime
All types of crime can be explained by
– Low self control
+
– Opportunity to commit crime
Self control is internal
– Affected by social control (Hirschi’s prior theory) only to age 8
Ordinary crimes have similar characteristics
– Immediate gratification, few long-term benefits
– Exciting, risky, require little planning or skill
– Heavy cost to victim
Ordinary criminals have “low self-control”
– Impulsive, Insensitive
– Physical, non-verbal rather than mental
– Risk taking, short-sighted
– Above cause smoking, drinking, involvement in accidents
Cause of low self-control:
Poor child-rearing practices
Adequate child-rearing properly “socializes” a child by imposing
controls
– Monitoring and tracking child’s behavior
– Recognizing deviance when it occurs
– Consistently punishing the behavior when recognized
Controls are ultimately internalized
– By age 8 self-control is essentially set
– After age 8, change in rate at which people commit crime
determined by opportunities to commit crime
Low self-control explains many relationships
– Delinquent peers delinquency: Those with poor self-controls
seek each other out
– School performance delinquency: Those with poor self-control
avoid school
– Unemployment crime: Those with poor self-control have trouble
keeping jobs
Issues with control theories
Theory is tautological: only way to determine if people have “low selfcontrol” is to determine if they engage in “low self-control” behavior
Can low self-control explain white collar crime?
How can low self-control explain variation in crime rates?
Difficulty on testing causal connection between poor child-rearing and
self-control
Is self-control really over by age 8?
Just how do opportunities interact with low self control to produce
crime?
– One test found a relationship between low-self control and
opportunity for crimes of fraud, not for crimes of force
– Another test found that low self-control and opportunity have an
explanatory effect on crime, but it’s very small
Hirschi altered definition of self-control to be the “tendency to consider
the full range of costs of a particular act”
Control theories -policy implications
Support...
–
–
–
–
–
–
Curfew laws
After-school activities
Job programs
Head-Start & early-childhood education
Parental instruction
Assistance to struggling families
Oppose...
–
–
Adult programs (too late)
Police tactics that create opportunities to commit crime