Understanding Social Control Theories and Deviant Behavior

1. Control Theories

2. Control Theory • Everyone is motivated to break the law • Deviance results from weak social constraints

3. Social Sources of Control • We connect to society via social groups • Social rewards are contingent on staying out of trouble

4. Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory • People break the law because they have not internalized society’s rules • Internalization requires social bonds

5. Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory • Emotional Attachment • Material Commitment • Temporal Involvement • Moral Belief

6. Age-Graded Theoryof Informal Social Control • Sampson and Laub (1993) extended social control theory to explain changes in offending behavior over the life course • Questions:

7. The Life-Course Perspective • Trajectories = • Transitions/Turning Points =

8. Age-Graded Theoryof Informal Social Control • Transitions increase or decrease informal social control • Life course persistent v. adolescent limited

9. Policy Implications • Less reliance on incarceration • Job training and family counseling • Use of community based punishment

10. A Contrasting View:Self-Control Theory • Control resides in the person, not in his or her relationship to social groups

11. The Origins of Self-Control • Young children naturally break rules • By age 8-10, kids most kids learn to control their behavior • Parenting is the key

12. Empirical Patterns that Fit • Offenders tend to be generalists • Most offending requires no special skil • Offending usually brings immediate benefit

13. A General Theory • Self-control is the only important causal factor for understanding crime/deviance • Other factors are spurious (also due to self-control)

14. Policy Implicationsof Self-Control Theory • Focus on early family-based intervention • Parents must monitor and punish behavior

15. Code of the Streets? • Informal social control theory • Neutralizations • Age-graded theory of informal social control • Self-control theory