Transcript Control Theory

Control Theories
Control Theory is different
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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
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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”
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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
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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
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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
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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
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All types of crime can be explained by
– Low self control
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– 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
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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
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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
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Support...
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Curfew laws
After-school activities
Job programs
Head-Start & early-childhood education
Parental instruction
Assistance to struggling families
Oppose...
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Adult programs (too late)
Police tactics that create opportunities to commit crime