Welcome to Week 12th!
Overview
This week we will focus on social control theories. These theories assume everyone has the desire to commit criminal and deviant acts and seeks to answer why some people refrain from doing so. Control theories assume that all people would naturally commit crimes if not for restraints on the selfish tendencies that exist in every individual. The theories are concerned with explaining why individuals don’t commit crimes or deviant behaviors. Others claim that there are internal mechanisms (such as self-control or self-conscious emotions, such as shame, guilt, etc.), but even those are likely a product of the type of environment in which one is raised.
Lesson Objectives
By the end of this week, you will be able to:
- Identify the central question of the social control theories.
- Discuss early models of social control theories.
- Identify the four bonds proposed by Travis Hirschi.
- Describe how a low level of self-control leads to delinquency and criminality, based on the General Theory of Crime.
Workflow
Readings
Chapter 10 in Piquero, Alex R. The Handbook of Criminological Theory, edited by Melissa L. Rorie, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bmcc/reader.action?docID=4035968&ppg=205
Access the chapter here.
The_Handbook_of_Criminological_Theory_-_10_Control_as_an_Explanation_of_Crime_and_DelinquencySage Publications (2010). Encyclopedia of Criminological Theory: Hirschi, Travis: Social Control Theory.
Access the chapter here.
Hirschi_Travis_-_Social_Control_Theory-2
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