Social Control Theory

Paper Summary:

The paper examines social control theories and that all control theories play on the theme that deviance is mainly a function of the kinds of constraints to which people are exposed. The paper focuses on Travis Hirschi's revised theory of social control (1969), which contends that everybody is motivated toward deviance, but only those who are relatively free of the bonds of commitment to, and belief in, the conventional order, attachment to others, and involvement with conventional institutions of society actually manifest their deviant motivation in unacceptable behavior. The paper further examines the work of Emile Durkheim arguing that individuals are freed to commit crime when their ties to the conventional social order are weak or broken. The paper concludes that Hirschi who speaks of control, does not offer a conceptualization of control, and that he appears to use the term as "the loose equivalent of influence".

From the Paper:

"The relevance of control for criminology is by no means limited to control theories about crime. Even if all versions of the control theory come to be abandoned, no alternative notion will be as important as is control in connection with criminology's policy implications. 11 Again, no criminological theory can be applied to realize a policy goal without manipulating the theory's independent variables, and such manipulation is bound to entail control attempts, probably on a massive scale."

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