The social bond theory under the sub-field of criminology is often in use when understanding criminal behaviors. An American criminologist Travis Hirschi was the one that developed the social bond theory back in the 1960s, also called as the social control theory. There is a belief that socialization and formation of personal relationships play the significant role in human development that keeps them away from crimes or from engaging in any forms of social deviance. Entirely, the social bond theory refers to that framework that criminologists put into use while explaining why a person would make a decision to engage in criminal behavior. Hirschi in his theory proposed four elements essential to shaping the social bonds connecting individuals and their society. These are attachment, commitment, involvement, and beliefs (Hirschi 39).
Attachment is the element that expresses concern about the thinking of other people over other people, which would lead individuals to start avoiding crime and negative behaviors to avoid disappointing respected people or individuals. Commitment is an element that entails investing time, energy and oneself in a conventional manner and awareness to avoid the deviant behavior. Involvement is an element that entails investing sufficient time and energy on conventional activities to ensure that less time remains for delinquent behavior. Finally, beliefs are elements explaining the extent of which an individual socializes with concepts of a common belief or common value within the society or group (Baumeister and Leary 499).
There are various policy implications of social control theory in curbing crime. Both commitment and attachment are elements of this theory that come with the highest amount of free will; hence little can be done to make people exhibit such characteristics. It is also not possible to force someone into believing something, hence implying that it would be difficult to have an explicit policy advocating for beliefs. The main idea of this theory is that those individuals possessing high self-control have the less likelihood of behaving or engaging in criminals activities. Thus, one would expect the society of which its youth or people have the high self-control to be less drawn in criminal acts. Also, the theory implies that those individuals with low levels of self-control have the higher likelihood of leading criminal and deviant lifestyles. Research also indicates that delinquency will be at highest levels when the individual’s attachment to the deviant environment is strong (Goode 279).
Many people would argue that the theory is not adequate at curbing delinquency basing on the fact that it only emphasizes on self-control. The theory fails in explaining deviance on aspects like the strength of an individual’s bond to society through the key elements of attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief. Another shortcoming of this theory is that attachment would most likely lead to delinquent behavior, rather than leading to good behavior. Having an attachment to the peers that are already engaging in criminal activities would eventually influence an individual to start engaging or behaving in a similar manner. The third shortcoming of this theory is that delinquency will be at its highest whenever an individual attaches to the deviant environment. Finally, exposure to the deviant environment would lead to more cases of delinquency, as opposed to reduced such cases. There is a need always to ensure that there is a perfect environment and that peers to the youth are people with highest moral standards and values acceptable by societies. If all these are subject to achieve, the youth will engage in less deviant activities and behaviors.
Works Cited
Baumeister, Roy F., and Mark R. Leary. "The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation." Psychological Bulletin 117.3 (1995): 497-529. Print.
Goode, Erich. "Social Control and Self-Control." The Handbook of Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Justice (2015): 274-290. Print.
Hirschi, Travis. Causes of Delinquency. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2002. Print.
