CRIME CONTROL THEORY

Crime Control Theory

Abstract

The research paper discusses the criminology theories that are significant for crime controlling and understanding the criminal behavior. The study has discussed two theories that are Containment Theory and Self Control theory that make wide spread understanding of crime control.

Crime Control Theory

Introduction

Crime control can be defined as methods applied to reduce the crime in a society. The crime control theories are important to study in Criminology. It defines the environment and behaviors of criminals and offenders. Crimes have become as difficult to understand as human nature. Contemporary technological innovation and incredible progress in communications have helped criminal of around the world to commit a crime.

Discussion

These are the two significant theories that could help understanding behavior and environment of the criminal.

Containment Theory

Containment theory is accepted as one of the initially presented control theories for the reason that it is focused on what control an individual from indulging in crime or relatively, what “contain” people (contain or containment fundamentally used in place of the term control). As pointed by Richard Dodder and Janet Long, containment theory recognized and become popular in the 1950s and 1960s and has become a staple in the discipline of criminological theory. While, in accordance with other scholars, the theory has gone out of study in past some years, but containment theory has kept its foundational place in criminological theory.

Containment Theory asked the query, “In a deviant's society, how and why do individual ignore deviances?” One of the famous criminology theories in the 1950 and 1960 come by Walter Reckless the Containment Theory. It is the theory that explains that all individuals of society are subjected to criminal behavior, but most of them has the power to resist these criminal behaviors with the 2 buffer of inner and outer containment, also that the chances for criminal behaviors increase when the internal and external constraint weaken. The theory suggested that people can be “insulate from crime if properly socialized by their family and friends, and controls themselves” (Dodder, 1980).

The first conception of the theory was initiated when Reckless was discovering the shortcoming of other approaches meant to describe criminal behavior and crimes. Initial criminological theory were acknowledged in terms of “pushing” and/or “pulling” individual toward deviances (e.g., differential association theory was recognized as a pull theory; Albert Cohen's sub cultural theory represented a combination of push and pull theory). According to Reckless, the problem with the approach was that they were unsuccessful to account for those youths that did not indulge in criminal behaviors in spite of being confronted with pushes and/or pulls towards criminal behavior way. This also was the case with the approach promoted by Reckless's mentors, social disorganization theory.

Reckless recognized that social disorganization approach to the study of delinquency and crime enjoyed popularity for a generation. He assumed, however, there was an essential oversight with this approach. Although he believed that there was merit to social disorganization theory, Reckless claimed that social disorganization alone was inadequate to fully address the problem of ...