Social Programs and Policy

Social Programs and Policy

The most well-known figure in control theory is Travis Hirschi, who emerged around 1969 from his "hellfire and delinquency" studies (Hirschi & Stark 1969) on religion and crime as a pioneer in social control theory and the method of self-report studies. Hirschi's (1969) book contained the first fully developed social bonding theory. Hirschi, along with co-author Michael Gottfredson then re-emerged in 1990 with yet another control theory, this one becoming known as low self control theory. Reconciling Hirschi's two control theories has attracted the attention of theorists (Felson 1997) as much as Hirschi's earlier social ...