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Sociological theoretical perspectives
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Social control theory Eric and Dyian
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The theory also accounts for crime and delinquency in adolescence. Sampson and Laub (2001) differentiated the life course of individuals based on age and argued that the important formal and informal social controls that would restrict deviant behavior varied across the life span. In childhood and adolescence, the dominant sources of informal social controls consisted mainly of parenting styles, such as discipline, supervision, emotional attachment, and on school attachment and peers. As such, when the bonds to these processes weakened, adolescents were more likely to commit deviant acts that extends throughout the life course of the individual (Piquero et al., 2001). However, the most notable difference between age-graded informal social …show more content…
For instance, Tim and Lionel have never felt attached to anyone else and believed that they did not belong to conventional society. These feelings were only exacerbated by the influence of the youth’s families. The importance of family and socialization practices (e.g., monitoring and supervision, formation of close bonds, etc.) for explaining crime and delinquency has been well established (Salvatore & Taniguchi, 2012). Studies show that youth who are closely supervised are less likely to associate with delinquent peers. Parents who have strong bonds to their children are more likely to supervise and monitor their children, decreasing the likelihood of their children’s associated with delinquent peers (Piquero et al., 2001). However, in the case of Tim and Lionel, both of their parents only considered them as burdens and through their actions essentially pushed the youth out of the family and into a context that promoted crime. The frequent beatings combined with the blatant disregard for their wellbeing created a lack of attachment in the youth. This lack of parental attachment did not directly affect delinquency. Instead, it lead the youth to distance themselves from society and become involved with other deviant peers, which in turn, led to …show more content…
According to them, school bonds act as a protective factor against violent and nonviolent offending (Laub et al., 2001) . For Tim and Lionel, harsh parental discipline and witnessing domestic violence disrupted the youth’s educational trajectories and weakened their attachment to school. As a consequence, they routinely misbehaved in school, subsequently led to the rejection of the youth by their teachers and peers. This rejection weakens the attachment of the youth to the school, and ultimately, lowers their performance in school. Thus, lack of attachment and low commitment to school, loosens social control exerted by school and led Tim and Lionel to delinquency (Salvatore & Taniguchi, 2012). Since Tim and Lionel were not accepted by others in school, they were not ‘bound’ by the school rules and felt that it was acceptable to commit deviant acts like
Laub and Sampson (2003) believe that age-graded informal social controls are crucial in understanding persistence and desistance in offending, although more research is necessary. Laub and Sampson (2003) argue that certain turning points in life influence persistence and desistance in offending through informal social controls highly associated with the age of the individual via intervening mechanisms. The age-graded informal social control theory aims to explain persistence and desistance, thus explaining important aspects of crime over the life course. Persistence and desistance are explained through age-graded informal social controls such as marriage, employment, and military service and their accompanying intervening mechanisms making the relationship between informal social controls and persistence and desistance somewhat more complex.
Church, W. T., Wharton, T., & Taylor, J. K. (2008). An examination of differential association and social control theory: Family systems and delinquency. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 7(1), 3-15.
In Laub and Sampson’s theory of age-graded social control, they are interested in the agencies and social experiences and how they play a role in whether an individual persists or desists from offending (Laub and Sampson 2003). More specifically, Laub and Sampson (2003:38) want to answer the question, “What are the mechanisms underlying the processes of persistent offending and desistance from crime?”
The first construct, attachment, relates to people and how close an individual is to whom they care about and how strong the affectional ties are, for example, to a family member or a friend. This concept states that if individuals have strong family bonds they will be less likely to commit crimes because the aspiring criminal cares about the opinions of those close to them. Social Control Theory addresses that attachments to parents are parent supervision are important in controlling delinquency (Akers & Sellers, 2013, pg. 118). The more adolescents are attached to the parts, the less likely they are to be delinquent (Akers & Sellers, 2013, pg. 118).
Transitioning from being a child to an adult brings challenges that some handle well and others have considerable trouble with. The amount of child delinquents between the ages of 7 and 12 inside the system has jumped 33 percent within a ten year period. This information raises red flags and sets of alarms inside the juvenile system because younger offenders of serious crimes are more likely to repeat their offenses. The likelihood of a child delinquent between the ages of 7 and 12 to become a serious offender is two to three times higher than delinquents in their teens (Flores, Child Delinquency, 2003). Studies addressing school influences on antisocial behavior have consistently shown that poor academic performance is directly correlated with child behavior issues and to the onset of serious delinquency (Brewer et al., 1995; Maguin and Loeber, 1996). The increase in school shootings and violence by kids inside their own places of learning shows the validity of the studies. Schools are looking for a more positive way to enforce discipline. Suspension and expulsion are proving to be a far less effective way of invoking discipline for juveniles. The time away from schools results in kids having more free time on their hands with nothing constructive or educational to do. This causes the juveniles involve themselves in criminal activities that usually begin petty, but after time the offenses increase in magnitude. Schools with very little teacher cooperation and poor teacher satisfaction ratings are linked to antisocial behavior in kids. The community plays a very important role in the development of juveniles as well. Poverty levels inside the community cause the development of antisocial behavior.
First, the integrated theories involve connecting, linking, combining, synthesizing the relations and fragments of other theories into formulations of crime and crime control that are more comprehensive, which combines the concepts and central propositions such as social disorganization, anomie, learning, and social control within the same discipline. (Critical Criminology, 2009) The purpose of the integrated theories is to produce a theory that is superior to any theory individually. The integrated theory takes several forms according to Delbert Elliott (1933), who “contend that social disorganization, strain, and inadequate socialization combine weaken conventional bonding and strengthen delinquent bonding” (Bohm & Vogel, 2011, p. 147). Therefore, the likelihood of social control of one’s association with delinquent peers is high, which increases their likelihood of delinquency. Nevertheless, when a person levels of social control experience strain, it began to
Self-control is an internal factor that shows a person has strong moral feelings making them unable to commit an act that may hurt someone else or that doesn’t agree with the values society has established as respectable. Commitment to conformity is an external factor explaining that a person doesn’t want to ruin their reputation or self-achievements through organizations or institutions they are strongly involved with by committing a crime. However, when those factors of internal and external control are missing or absent then a person is prone to violate the law. One of the biggest and most influential studies of social control theory was documented by Travis Hirschi in his book Causes of Delinquency, which was published in 1969. Under this theory, "Hirschi links the onset of criminality to weakening of the ties that bind people to society. He assumes that all individuals are potential law violators, but most are kept under control because they fear that illegal behavior will damage their relationships with friends, family, neighbors, teachers, and employers" (Siegel, 2014, p. 180). Travis Hirschi 's social control theory identified that there are four key elements capable of affecting an individual’s potential to commit a crime, which are: attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief. Attachment is how a person interacts and shows interest with others. Under this element, it is important that a person maintains a close relationship with their parents. If the bond between a parent and child is broken, and they no longer speak, it is more likely that the child will begin to show resistance towards authorities. Under the element of commitment, it is discussed that a person should put their effort and time into productive activities. Getting an education, beginning to save money for the future, and
Sampson, R., & Laub, J. (1990). Crime and Deviance over the Life course: the salience of adult social bonds. American Sociological Review, 55(5), 609-627.
Due to the short comings of the social bond theory’s ability to explain delinquency, Hirschi in collaboration with Michael R. Gottfredson devised the theory on self-control. (Parent, 2003) The self-control theory became recognised as ‘the general theory of crime’. The theory states ‘’individuals with high self-control will be substantially less likely at all periods of life to engage in criminal acts while those with low self-control are highly likely to commit crime.’’ (Travis Hirschi, 1990) Hirschi and Michael Gottfredson provided that the theory ‘’explains all crime, at all times, and, for that matter many forms of behaviour that are not sanctioned by the state.’’ (Travis Hirschi, 1990) The self-control theory was created with the idea of being an ‘’all inclusive’’ theory, which relates to everyone regardless of age, race or ethnicity. (Parent, 2003) Hirschi explained that those with an elevated self- control would be ‘’substantially less likely at all period of life to engage in criminal acts.’’ (Ronald L. Akers, 2003) And that those with low self-control, when the opportunities to commit crime arise, will be substantially more likely to commit criminal acts. Overall, Hirschi hypothesised that low self-control was responsible for all forms of delinquency and criminal behaviour. As for the cause, self-control is either developed or not developed at a young age and once developed, it remains stable throughout the individual’s life. (Intravia, 2009) Self -control sometimes cannot be developed as a result of ineffective childhood socialization, where parents have failed to monitor behaviour appropriately, did not recognise misbehaviours and failed to punish these misbehaviours. (Ronald L. Akers, 2003) Similarly, to his social bond theory, Hirschi and Gottfredson devised numerous elements of low self-control. These elements were: impulsivity, preference for simple
Family Lifestyle and the behavior of members within the family have been shown to have a direct affect on a teenager’s behavior in school. A child can be influenced very easily by any older person, especially a family member, because he always looks up to that family member. If a person in the family is involved in a criminal activity then the children can be turned on by this and become interested in doing the same thing. If the guardian or parent of a teenager does not punish him for doing something wrong, this can only lead to repetition of the bad behavior. Failure to stop a child from doing something wrong could lead the child to believe that his behavior is acceptable. Also, a child thinks that the people that are supposed to love him don’t even care that he is doing something bad so he will continue to do it. Teenagers also commit acts of violence to get their parents’ attention. If parents ignore what their teenagers are doing, then the teenagers will continue to do more negative things just to get their parents to notice them. Another reason why family lifestyle is a cause to teen violence is, if the teenager is abandoned at a young age than there is no one to teach him wrong and right (Kim 82).
At this point in time, teenagers are going through their rebellious stage where they wish to assert and explore their independence. While doing so, some begin to reject conforming to societal norms in an attempt to continue cultivating their individuality. During this search for independence, teens are predisposed to making many poor decisions due to the underdevelopment of white matter in their brains. Teen shoplifting is a popular example of formal social deviance, a violation of a formally-enacted law. In this case, the thrill of stealing and breaking the law outweighs the possibilities of getting reprimanded if caught. Since the adolescent brain is very sensitive, one’s environment also plays a large role in one’s decision to engage in criminal activity. Teenagers who grow up in poverty are more likely to become social deviants than those who grow up in families with higher income brackets. This can be explained through strain theory, the idea that people turn to deviance when they are unable to attain culturally approved goals through institutional means. People who are put at a disadvantage in terms of money and education are pressured into becoming criminals in order to become successful in society. Environment does not just encompass location; it also refers to the type of people an individual is surrounded with. Deviance is a learned behavior in many
In today’s society, a person is judged by their actions and their age. Some actions are more acceptable at different ages. For example, if a four year old stole something, they would not be punished to the same extent as a sixteen year old. There is a relationship between crime rates and age. In relation to other age groups, adolescents are more likely to commit crime. Offending increases in adolescence and peaks in the late teenage years and then starts to decrease as a person ages. Shulman, Steinberg and Piquero (2013) found that, “rates of offending rise and fall between ages 12 and 24 with the highest proportion of offending occurring at age 15” (p. 853). This study was mostly compromised of property offenses, which usually peak earlier compared to violent crimes. They also wanted to see if economic status was the actual reason for the peak of crime in adolescence since people of that age are poorer compared to adults, as a study conducted by Brown and Males stated. Shulman et al. (2013) determined that economic status was only minimally associated with the
Families serve as one of the strongest socializing forces in a person's life. They help teach children to control unacceptable behavior, to delay gratification, and to respect the rights of others. Conversely, families can also teach children aggressive, antisocial, and violent behavior. In adults' lives, family responsibilities may provide an important stabilizing force. Given these possibilities, family life may directly contribute to the development of delinquent and criminal tendencies. Parental conflict and child abuse correlate with delinquency. Though not all children who grow up in conflictive or violent homes become delinquent, however, being exposed to conflict and violence appears to increase the risk of delinquency. At this point, researchers have not pin pointed what factors exactly push some at-risk youth into delinquency. A child with criminal parents faces a greater likelihood of becoming a delinquent than children with law-abiding parents. However, the influence appears not to be directly related to criminality but possibly to poor supervision.
In this article, Schroeder, Giordano and Cernkovich explain social bonds within the child-parent relationship and life course delinquency. The social bond theory is a link that is created between people and the community/ society, both play a part within this theory. There are parts to the social bonds; attachment, commitment, involvement and belief. The authors incorporate the social bond theory within the life course criminality and the parent-child bond. Parenting practices are often associated as interpreters of early childhood offending, but little is acknowledged about the responsibility of parents in adulthood in endorsing or deterring criminal behavior. The authors use three waves of data within a time span of twenty-one years from
Stults, B. J., & Falco, C. S. (2014). Unbalanced institutional commitments and delinquent behavior: An individual-level assessment of institutional anomie theory. Youth Violence And Juvenile Justice, 12(1), 77-100. doi:10.1177/1541204012473133