Social Control Theory: The Legacy of Travis Hirschi's Causes of Delinquency

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara J. Costello ◽  
John H. Laub
Keyword(s):  
Control Theory ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Social Control Theory ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Crime And Delinquency ◽  
The Individual ◽  
New Research ◽  
Lasting Influence

The publication of Travis Hirschi's Causes of Delinquency in 1969 was a watershed moment in criminology. There are many reasons for the work's lasting influence. Hirschi carefully examined the underlying assumptions of extant theories of crime in light of what was known about the individual-level correlates of offending. He then developed critical tests of hypotheses derived from social control theory and competing perspectives and empirically assessed them using original self-report delinquency data. Many of his key findings, such as the negative correlation between attachment to parents and delinquency, are now established facts that any explanation of crime must consider. Causes of Delinquency is still cited hundreds of times per year, and it continues to spark new research and theoretical development in the field. Perhaps the most lasting legacy is the volume of criticism it has attracted and fended off, leading to its enduring contribution to the study of crime and delinquency.

Where the Millennials Will Take Us

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara J. Risman
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Structure Theory ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Gender Categories ◽  
The Individual ◽  
New Research ◽  
Fourth Wave

In this book Barbara J. Risman uses her gender structure theory to tackle the question about whether today’s young people, Millennials, are pushing forward the gender revolution or backing away from it. In the first part of the book, Risman revises her theoretical argument to differentiate more clearly between culture and material aspects of each level of gender as a social structure. She then uses previous research to explain that today’s young people spend years in a new life stage where they are emerging as adults. The new research presented here offers a typology of how today’s young people wrestle with gender during the years of emerging adulthood. How do they experience gender at the individual level? What are the expectations they face because of their sex? What are their ideological beliefs and organizational constraints based on their gender category? Risman suggests there is great variety within this generation. She identifies four strategies used by young people: true believers in gender difference, innovators who want to push boundaries in feminist directions, straddlers who are simply confused, and rebels who sometimes identify as genderqueer and reject gender categories all together. The final chapter offers a utopian vision that would ease the struggles of all these groups, a fourth wave of feminism that rejects the gender structure itself. Risman envisions a world where the sex ascribed at birth matters has few consequences beyond reproduction.

Indices and Correlates of Positive Emotion in Psychopathology

2019 ◽  
pp. 95-118
Author(s):  
Sunny J. Dutra ◽  
Marianne Reddan ◽  
John R. Purcell ◽  
Hillary C. Devlin ◽  
Keith M. Welker
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotion ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Innovative Methods ◽  
Behavioral Coding ◽  
Broad Array ◽  
Positive Valence ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Clinical Populations

This chapter not only draws from previous authoritative measurement overviews in the general field of emotion, but also advances these resources in several key ways. First, it provides a specific focus on positive valence systems, which have not yet received specific methodological attention. Second, the field of positive emotion (PE) has expanded in recent years with new and innovative methods, making an updated review of methodological tools timely. Third, the chapter incorporates discussion of PE disturbance in clinical populations and the methods best suited to capture PE dysfunctions. This chapter also outlines some tools that can allow researchers to capture a broad array of PE quantified by self-report, behavioral coding, and biological correlates as seen through changes in the central and peripheral nervous system (i.e., brain and body). After reviewing PE measurement methods and correlates, this chapter includes several methods for studying PE beyond the individual level (i.e., interpersonal) and traditional laboratory settings (i.e., ambulatory or experience sampling). It provides key examples of their applications to study PE in clinical populations while acknowledging several of their basic advantages and disadvantages.

Missing Data in Research on Youth and Family Programs

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110268
Author(s):  
Jaime Ballard ◽  
Adeya Richmond ◽  
Suzanne van den Hoogenhof ◽  
Lynne Borden ◽  
Daniel Francis Perkins
Keyword(s):  
Missing Data ◽  
Statistical Methods ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Program Participation ◽  
Multilevel Data ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Post Test ◽  
The Individual

Background Multilevel data can be missing at the individual level or at a nested level, such as family, classroom, or program site. Increased knowledge of higher-level missing data is necessary to develop evaluation design and statistical methods to address it. Methods Participants included 9,514 individuals participating in 47 youth and family programs nationwide who completed multiple self-report measures before and after program participation. Data were marked as missing or not missing at the item, scale, and wave levels for both individuals and program sites. Results Site-level missing data represented a substantial portion of missing data, ranging from 0–46% of missing data at pre-test and 35–71% of missing data at post-test. Youth were the most likely to be missing data, although site-level data did not differ by the age of participants served. In this dataset youth had the most surveys to complete, so their missing data could be due to survey fatigue. Conclusions Much of the missing data for individuals can be explained by the site not administering those questions or scales. These results suggest a need for statistical methods that account for site-level missing data, and for research design methods to reduce the prevalence of site-level missing data or reduce its impact. Researchers can generate buy-in with sites during the community collaboration stage, assessing problematic items for revision or removal and need for ongoing site support, particularly at post-test. We recommend that researchers conducting multilevel data report the amount and mechanism of missing data at each level.

scholarly journals The Relevance of the Social Control Theory in Explaining Crime among African American Families

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Ayodeji Daramola ◽  
Gbolahan S Osho
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Control Theory ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Justice System ◽  
African American Families ◽  
Social Control Theory ◽  
The Church

Today, criminologists, especially, Black criminologists, are thoroughly perplexed by the same problem of disproportionate minority confinement (DMC) most especially of Blacks in both the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Are African Americans more criminally minded than other races or ethnic groups? Do African Americans actually commit more crimes than others? These are the questions that the different deviant theories have tried to answer. The concept of social bonding arose from social control theory, which suggests that attachment to family and school, commitment to conventional pathways of achievements and beliefs in the legitimacy of social order are primary and important elements of establishing a social bond (Hirschi, 1969). In expounding his social control theory, Hirschi listed the elements of the bond as attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief. Does it mean that African Americans commit more crimes than other racial and ethnic groups? Or are African Americans genetically wired to be criminogenic? Is the society or the environment to blame for the perceived higher rate of crime among African Americans? Or are the criminal justice system, the judicial system, and the juvenile justice system, all together racially biased against Blacks, especially, Black males? Even though Hirschi (1969) did not mention attachment to religious beliefs as part of social control, but for the African American families, the church could play a significant role in helping to cement the bond of adolescents to their families. Any study of the African American family is not complete without the church. According to Work (1900), in all social study of the Negro, the church must be considered, for it is one of the greatest factors in his social life.

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