Preview

Social Control Theory

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
590 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Social Control Theory
One of the main key differences that separates control theories from learning theories although both are a subunit of social process theories, is that they have different assumptions of human nature that they based their theory on. For instance, in social control theories, the assumption is that humans are bad by nature; hence, humans need different types of social control that will regulate their behavior. If humans were left to pursue whatever they wanted without following any laws or norms they would commit crimes because everyone is equally capable of this deviant behavior since humans are bad by nature. However, this agencies of social control prevent this. On the other hand, learning theories assume that humans are good by nature. Therefore, the criminal behavior is learned and shaped by human’s social interactions. In other words, humans don’t become criminals by just associating themselves with “bad individuals,” but what leads them to become a criminal is that they learn these deviant behaviors from them. Just like every other learning mechanism, learning criminal …show more content…
The main focus of social control theories is explaining the factors that inhibit crime. There are four social bonds that regulate from committing crime: attachment, commitment, involvement, and beliefs. The first one attachment, explains that law abiding citizens are most likely to have rich ties with friends, family, and institutions. The stronger that attachment is, the less likely the individual will commit crime because he/she wouldn’t want to disappoint them. On the contrary, criminals tend to have a weak attachment and they have cold relationships almost with everyone. Hence, having no social bond of attachment deterring them from committing crime, they are most likely to engage in

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In societies where there are strong social controls, it limits the ability of the criminal to engage in criminal behavior. Without these social controls, the criminal elements will be successful and influence members of the society. Another aspect of the personal crime theory is that people who live in communities that lack the necessary social controls experience strain when they cannot reach the same success as other members of society. The strain that is met by the citizen turns to anger or frustration is alleviated by criminal behavior that gets the person closer to his or her…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The social process theory draws the conclusion that criminals were raised in an environment that forms them to make unlawful decisions. People are influenced by what they are taught and their surroundings such as where they were raised, their guardians, and people they associated with. Individual’s actions and thought process will be based on what their first instinct is and their first instinct will be what they know best. For example, if a boy is raised in a home where their family shows his or her anger by reacting physically, that child will be more likely the one that is getting in fights at school than the child who grew up in a home were fighting was never present. No one is born with the mind be a criminal, they are in some way directed to perform the behavior or actions he or she have committed.…

    • 1818 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    General Strain Theory

    • 2128 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Hirschi described social bonding theory as, “Elements of social bonding include attachment to families, commitment to social norms and institutions (school, employment), involvement in activities, and the belief that these things are important” (Alston 1995). Forming social relationships is one of the most important aspects to staying out of criminal activities. The four basic principle elements of this theory are attachment, commitment, involvement, and beliefs. Attachment is the degree of value an individual holds in a society. The most important attachment most individuals form is family. Family helps to form an idea of what the world is from a very young age. They teach how to behave in specific situations and what is wrong or right. With attachment, an individual learns what to expect from society as well as what the society expects from him or her. A person who doesn’t form a strong attachment to family or society has trouble fitting into the norms (Alston 1995). Commitment is said to be the second step to attachment. One has to commit to the norms of society and uphold to expectations. An individual without a strong attachment will find it difficult to commit. The third element, Involvement is giving importance and time to society. Its engrossing oneself and participating in conventional activities. Finally, beliefs are the the rules and certain values of society a person has to follow. For example, having a monogamous relationship is a norm in the United States. Not following this norm or any other norm causes an individual to deviate from society. They become outcasts and lose their sense of responsibility to society. This in turn encourages that individual to participate in criminal activity and deviance (Alston…

    • 2128 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The social control theory believes that the community where a person lives, the family, and society either encourages or discourage people to commit illegal actions. According to Mallory, (2007) says, “Fear of punishment, shame or embarrassment and psychological restraints such as conscience are a few reasons why many people choose not to engage in criminal activities.” Healthy relationships with family, with the same beliefs and desires about society committing a criminal, act is the closest connections to organized crime as the members can…

    • 734 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    6). To that end, Colvin concluded that ‘both impersonal and interpersonal coercion are positively related to delinquent involvement” (p. 6). It is evident that the theorist attempted to validate his hypothesis through the application of an empirical study. The deferential coercion theory relates to the parental theory by the present deficits. Parental social bonds, and school social bonds where among the deficits. The differential coercion theory is yet a small branch of the Social Bond Theory and Social Control Theory. In another attempt to validate the theory based on the parental theory, one can examine and analyze the policy implications that follow. For example, Dolu and Büker (2010) explain how parents should “develop a strong social bond to legitimate institutions and especially to the family, children should be disciplined in a consistently non-coercive fashion” (p. 7) in order to retract from criminal behavior. This can be done through training programs. Simply put, criminal behavior can be reduced through consistent, non-coercive controls. This sub-theory relates overall due to the interactions, both personal and interpersonal, relationships individuals have with one or others, much life Social Bond Theory and the attachment, or involvement one has in…

    • 1179 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Describe developments of social bond/self-control and deterrence theories. Please also summarize the key research and empirical evidence. Make sure that you include the key concepts, theorists and principles in each theory. Compare and contrast between the two theories. How these two theories are similar or different from each other when they explain crime and delinquency?…

    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every person in a society has a specific role or significance to that society, which often change throughout the course of their life. (5) The system used to describe and organize these roles is known as the Social Dominance Theory, which is comprised of three main parts: a gender system, an age system, and an arbitrary-set system. The Social Dominance Theory argues how several societies or groups organize themselves into hierarchies, in which the share of wealth and resources among the people is disproportionate. Over time, the systems of the Social Dominance Theory change, which is relevant to changes in age and gender roles because oppression and prejudice in a society allows the roles to evolve. The evolution of the systems results in…

    • 359 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Social Controls

    • 2967 Words
    • 12 Pages

    This essay will thoroughly examine and evaluate the claim that it is social controls that prevent us from committing crimes by looking at different social control theories. Firstly we must determine what a social control theory consists of, according to Hopkins (2009) ‘social control theory is fundamentally derived from a conception of human nature that proposes that there are no natural limits on elementary human needs and desires. People will always want and seek further economic reward and it is thus not necessary to look for special motives for engaging in criminal activity. Human beings are born free to break the law and will only refrain from doing so under particular circumstances. It is these fundamental assumptions that form the basis of social control theories’ (Hopkins 2009, p.246). Therefore controls set in society are the reason humans do not commit crime, if these controls were to be removed humans would naturally due to their nature commit crime. This also shows that social control theories try and solve the question of ‘why do people not commit crime?’ rather than ‘what causes people to commit crime?’ The reason behind solving the first question rather than the second is because social control theorists believe committing crime is the default position of every human therefore the second question has already been solved.…

    • 2967 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Travis Hirschi's Social Control Bond Theory, later known as the Social Control Theory, was created in the the late 1960"s. Like many criminologist and theorist before him, he was trying to figure out why people confirmed to follow the law. Hirschi believed that people only became criminals when their bond to society was weakened. In particular, Hirschi suggest that youths that are strongly attached to parents will hold beliefs consistent with the norms and values of society and unlikely to engage in delinquency.…

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    social theory

    • 551 Words
    • 2 Pages

    After researchers do a field study of deviant behavior during a riot, law enforcement officials demand that the researchers identify the persons who were observed looting. Rather than risk arrest as accomplices after the fact, the researchers comply and turn over the names.…

    • 551 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Organized Crime Paper

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The social control theory states that an individual 's care about the community that they live in usually want commit any illegal activities in that community. This theory also believe before a person a crime they usually will about the consequence that they will face if they committed this crime. The social control theory also states that if the community continues to show that they care about the people who live in the community by offer different programs and displays morals and respect it would be hard for criminal activities to exist (University of Phoenix, 2010).…

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Crime is defined as a deviant act which goes against the norms and values of society which can be culturally and historically determined. The term crime really has no reality beyond the application of the term to particular acts. The acts themselves are not always classed as criminal, for example to kill a person during peacetime would be classed as criminal (murder), but to kill them on a battlefield would not. Criminal acts consist of many petty acts which cause little or no harm or financial loss to anybody, and often there is no victim. Many more serious crimes such as large scale tax evasion which costs the government a lot of money, are often overlooked and are seldom prosecuted.…

    • 2014 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    What would you do if every single one of you were controlled to think or act in a certain way, since the day you were born? This is not a plot of a movie, you may not realise it but that is the reality we live in right now. We are all controlled by our parents, friends, the media, the government and even our teachers to act in a certain way. HeIlo everyone, I am Professor Kran and I would like to thank your teacher for inviting me to give all you an understanding of how control will affect our future. Because, if control already affects us all, just imagine a future where technology has the power to track and shape every single aspect of our lives.…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Social Control Examples

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Societies usually all have norms, rules, and punishments for social control of its members. Social control can happen formally and informally. Mostly, we see social control within laws, court systems, and forms of law enforcement, but it can manifest in other ways, like emotions. Depending on the society, the control will vary and may also change over time. Examples of formal control are: going to jail for breaking the laws that are in place, getting a referral at school for bullying, or being fired for not following a companies set policies. Examples of informally control are: criticism for a differing belief, disapproval from a parent when the child’s grades are low, or, more severely, discrimination for sex, age, or skin color.…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Social Control

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Social control has been around ever since humans began banding together and forming societies. The creation of societies demanded that in order for this organization to run properly, it needed to control the masses. If it didn’t, there would be chaos. Social control is the mechanism that monitors behavior and penalizes the violation of norms. Societies enforced these laws with external and internal social controls. External controls are societal mechanisms that monitor people’s behaviors. These controls reward group conformity and punish those who don’t. An example of external control is laws. Laws are meant to be followed and those who don’t will be punished accordingly. Internal social controls are internalized. Internalized social control is the strongest control one can have over people. This control governs our actions whether people are watching or not. This is the cop in our minds. An example would be religion and culture. Deviance is the occurrence of purposely defying these norms and standards. I choose deviance because the world alone has a negative connotation but deviance can be a good thing.…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays