Abstract
Social control theory obtained popularity across the 1960s which sociologists had different notions about crime. During the period, Travis Hirschi presented forth the innovative control theory rendering. This was a theory based on the existing social control concepts. The intent of this paper is to establish the links between school, family and other social aspects serve as ways of diminishing an individual’s propensity in deviant behavior.
Introduction
The social control theory maintains that crime happens when these bonds encounter weaknesses or lack sufficient establishment. The control theorists are for the fact that without the bonds, crime becomes an inevitable result (Sliedregt, 2012). As opposed to subsequent theories seeking to establish why individuals present deviant behavior, these control theories appreciate an opposite approach. They question why people distance themselves from offending. In the end, criminality falls under the category of a possibility for individuals in society that is avoidable by those seeking to maintain social and familial bonds. These bonds base their concepts on attachment to persons within and outside the family, which includes teachers as well as co-workers (Bussmann & Karstedt, 2000).
Commitment to Social Activities
The element of commitment to social activities that an individual invests time and energy enables them achieves both educational and career goals. The involvement dimension within the activities, which serve to further bond the individual onto others leaves minimal time to for involvement in various deviant activities. Finally, people need to have a strong belief in the broader scope of social values. Such social control aspects interact for purposes of insulating individuals from elements of criminal involvement (Siegel & Welsh, 2014). The people seeking to measure this theory’s strength have it specifically relating to young people and have bonds with family, community, as well as religion. This allows them to determine the scope to which the bonds continue affecting such elements of offending.
Social control theory has concentrates among subsequent sociological theories focusing on various roles played by familial and social bonds in constraining offending. It also proposes that young people have this as an essential social control element found in families (Bussmann & Karstedt, 2000). Particularly, thus is through the various feelings towards and interactions with parents. Large proportions of research establish a negative correlation between delinquency and parental attachment. For this reason, the greater the parental attachment, the lower the possibility of getting involved behaviors of delinquency (Sliedregt, 2012). Proactive aggression and aggression displayed in exception of provocation are early predictors of delinquent violent offending in future. By contrast, the adolescent partner violence has a thorough association with the reactive aggression and aggression in category of defensive behavior while responding to aspects of perceived aggression.
Adolescent males experiencing less parental monitoring were more possible to continue demonstrating proactive aggression as well as violence later during their adolescence. Early intervention through differing parenting approaches lead to prevention of further adolescent violent offences. The findings support the perspective that all parenting practices coupled with parental support influence violent offending from the youth. Attachment is core among the social control theory components particularly with parental attachment. Parental attachment affects involvement in crime among the young people (Siegel & Welsh, 2014). Young people reporting to feel stronger parental connection were less involved in committing violent offences using weapons. Young people exhibiting minimal violent behavior are likely to uphold advanced parental attachments. Parental attachment lowers the possibility of violence in intimate relations. The findings support the conception of the parental attachments’ roles in refuting young people against criminal activities. Parental controls lower delinquency among the youth. There is a strong connection between intimate violent offending, violent parents, and parental bonds. Young people observing violence between their parents hold minimal parental attachment levels (Rankin & Wells, 2011). This way, they are more likely to commit violent offences against their intimate partners. Lower parental monitoring levels also add to adolescent partner violence. The findings are in line with the claim of control theory citing that parental attachments and bonding lower the possibilities of delinquency. Critics observe that positive parental support and parental contact do not affect childhood misconduct in any way (Akers & Jensen, 2011).
Together with parental connection, teenage connection to schools in the public management theory is a fundamental means of developing public management. Teenagers who show more violence during the first contact interval are more likely to have been competitive during the contact interval. School assistance plays a significant part in stopping future competitive harmful engagements resulting from insufficient connection in other aspects of the kid's life (Samaha, 2005). As such, younger individuals may then desist from crude actions to ensure the ongoing assistance that they are receiving from the school. Strong connection to schools has a link to less competitive harms. As a result, they determine that the important effect of school connection in the lives of younger individuals cannot face reduction. The younger individuals who had increasing dedication for more competitive offenses in the subsequent surveys were more likely as compared to individuals expressing sensations of less connection with their university.
Further, a positive relationship exists between feelings linked with mother and father and sensation linked with schools. The results emphasize the potential part that mother and father and schools can play in preventing competitive harmful amongst younger individuals. School connection, among other public management aspects, protected younger individuals from competitive actions. Those evaluated to present less competitive actions during child years were more likely to have stronger relationships with mother and father, more likely to be spiritual, and more likely to have established a connection to university during mid-adolescence (Rankin & Wells, 2011). Teenagers evaluated by the teachers to be competitive during child years (and thus, for whom had predicted assault) were less likely to indeed be competitive at age 18 if they had experienced the interaction of various social security aspects such as peer communications, religiosity, and family participation. Previous research maintains that teenage connection to schools appears to develop a safety function above subsequent teenage assaults.
Free Will Perception
For social control concept, the actual view of human instinct contains the free will perception, thereby giving violators the potential of choice, and liability for their actions. As such, social control aspects are more with the traditional criminology theories as compared to the positivist or determinist viewpoints. For the most part, social control concepts postulate distributed values and the perception in public standards. Even those breaking rules or breaching public standards are likely to share the general perception that those guidelines followed. Criminal activity and deviance are foreseeable actions that community has not restricted (Britt & Gottfredson, 2011). Describing complying, particularly the process by which people serve to follow the guidelines is the substance of public management concept.
Social groups and the community serve as agents of social control in consideration of the social control literary works. Teenagers confessing to have harmful physical and sexual affiliations have lower views of community tracking than younger individuals who do not report such affiliate misuse. Reduced feelings of public responsibility have a connection related to misbehavior amongst study members. The areas in promoting values and normative values on assault hence, there is a significant connection between the neutralization of assault within group standards and competitive behavior amongst both men and women members (Samaha, 2005). Additionally, amongst men members, group perform standards have a stronger forecaster of assault than the impact of perform standards and colleagues. Such results support the idea that group groups that adhere to aggressive standards will likely affect the competitive nature of individual members. While not as widely analyzed as other aspects of social control, the religiosity impact on misbehavior by those seeking to understand this aspect of social control (McShane, 2013).
There are assessments on the debate on the effects of religiosity on youngsters’ misbehavior, ask whether younger individuals who are more spiritual are less past due. Religiosity relates to the extent to which individuals attribute particular spiritual values to the values of and hence their dedication to attending services of that church regularly. Religiosity had a negative impact on misbehavior, which included a measure of assault (Einstadter, 2006). Religion reduces misbehavior due to the impact spiritual values have on forming values. Religious youngsters may be less inclined to affiliate with past due colleagues. Religiosity reduces the likelihood of misbehavior among younger individuals.
Irrespective of the research supporting the social control theory tenets, various scholars question this theory’s strength. It is worth noting that some question whether the self-control notions as proposed are applicable in explaining the serious offending behaviors. This way, critics of this theory add that this theory is in a better position to able to define minor offending. It does not explain expressly and adequately the more serious crimes (Britt & Gottfredson, 2011). By extension, research on the influences of diverse social control theory aspects sheds light on the potential components of policy development. Social control theory increasingly points at the fact that the various roles of parents are crucial to the young people in bonding with the family.
Conclusion
Such bonds are fundamental in diminishing delinquent involvement propensity for a child. In this area, research largely finds an engraved relationship between lower delinquency levels and parental attachment through the provision of support to the parents (Adler & Laufer, 1993). This takes the form of skills training in proper parenting as an effective tool towards remedying youth crime. The essence of this is to build strong bonds across both parents and children. Past the family, the schools have a prominent responsibility in young people socialization as they play a critical role for the insulating factors over crime. Schools also provide sufficient support to the young people, which they cannot receive anywhere else (Einstadter, 2006). With this in mind, school bonds play such important significant roles in the reduction of violent offending. It appears seems antithetical for any school to take up “zero tolerance” action policies. They only serve as exclusions and isolations of young people acting violently and cutting links to schools. As an alternative, young people at risk of delinquency need to receive more support from school and not exclusion. Policies that promote school cohesion and young people bonds to schools should be receive much favor.
References
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