How the Control Theory Works in Criminology Research Paper

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deviance and criminal behavior can result from people feeling disconnected from their school and home situation. This backs up the control theory, which posits that with less control -- or weak bonds -- behavior can and does become deviant and even criminal later in life.

Control Theory -- Narrative Explanations

In his narratives on delinquency, Travis Hirschi, one of the most prominent theorists when it comes to control theories, said there are four variables that help explain why people either conform to, or deviate from social norms. And this is important because delinquents are often caught up in criminal activities later in life. In the process of deviating from socially respectable behaviors -- and in the extreme, becoming involved in crime -- people are just reacting to four variables, Hirschi explains. The four are: a) attachment (with parents, peers, teachers, and others); b) commitment (this is what a person must consider prior to getting involved in criminal behavior; he risks "…losing the investment he has made in previous conventional behavior"); c) involvement (if a person is deeply involved in "conventional activities" he simply won't have time to be involved in "deviant behavior"); and d) belief (a person is far more apt to conform to proper behavior and observe society values if he believes in those rules and values (Welch, 1998).

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Michael R. Gottfredson, writing an essay in the book, Taking Stock: The Status of Criminological Theory (authored by Professor Francis Cullen -- with the University of Cincinnati -- believes that there is a "large body of high quality empirical research about age and crime" that draws a fair link between "misconduct early in life and criminal behavior later in life" (Gottfredson, 2011). So Gottfredson basically agrees with Hirschi's theory in the sense that if some kind of restraint is not present in a person's life, he or she will "engage in deviance" at some point in the future (79). In social control theories, a restraint typically would be a "social bond," for example. And that social bond is "the glue connecting the individuals to society," Gottfredson continues (79). But for those with "weak social bonds" can be expected….....

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