CRIME EVALUATION

Self-Control Theory of Crime Evaluation



Self-Control Theory of Crime Evaluation

Introduction

There is no doubt that the phenomenon of crime and the offense is one of the most dangerous social phenomena that threaten the human race in its security and stability, and even his life. Control theories place much, but not all, violent behavior into the class of acts that the theory was designed to explain (Tehrani et al 2010). As such, self-control theory is also a theory of violent behavior. Control theories also owe much of their development to scientific studies of crime and delinquency. At the outset, it was designed to account for the major facts about individual differences in crime and delinquency as revealed in the empirical literature (Gottfredson, 2005). Because an appreciation of these facts is critical to an appreciation of the theory, some of the correlates of violence central to the crime theories are discussed. The paper then addresses precisely what forms the violent behavior within contemporary American society.

Discussion

In self-control theory, caring and attentive parents or other caregivers create the tendency in their children to subordinate their immediate desires to long-term interests. Self-control in children is created by establishing a reciprocal bond between parent and child. This bond inhibits the pursuit of short-term objectives unfettered by longer term concerns, such as parental and peer respect, interpersonal relations, and the development of social capital. Much violent criminal behavior jeopardizes these long-term interests and is thus generally prevented by high levels of self-control (Schmalleger 2006). The general characteristics of acts inhibited by high levels of self-control suggest a cause for the versatility effect routinely found in the literature, and the early development of self-control in childhood suggests a reason for the stability of individual differences in the tendency for problem behaviors to persist over the life course.

Social control theory is concerned with how human behavior is regulated within society. In contrast, conflict theory to refer to any theory or collection of theories which emphasize the role of conflict in human societies. More specifically conflict theory refers to a collection of theories of the 1960s, which provided an alternative model of social life to that of the then dominant branch of sociology, structural-functionalism (Ellis 2007).

Self Control Theory

Self-control theory is a perspective in criminology that attempts to explain the distribution of crime and delinquency, including violence, among individuals, groups, and societies (Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990). Unlike behavioral science theories that seek to discover what motivates people to steal and to be aggressive, control theories begin by assuming that the motives for crime and violence are similar to the motives for all other behavior. Beginning with the assumption that conforming behavior is problematic, control theories seek to understand the forces that compel most people, most of the time, to behave nonviolently and noncriminal. Self-control theory locates the basis for conforming behavior in the attachments formed early in life between parents or other caregivers and children. These attachments, or social bonds, develop into the tendency to regulate individual conduct by attending ...