The Generalizability of Self-Control Theory

Abstract

Travis Hirschi's and Michael Gottfredson's general theory of crime-usually referred to as self-control theory-is much broader than social bonding theory: it is "a theoretical explanation of criminal offending at all ages, in all places, as well as an explanation of non-criminal acts that were thought to share important conceptual grounds with crime and delinquency (smoking, drinking, accidents, obesity, gambling)" (Paternoster and Bachman 2010: 126). In the general theory of crime, the earlier (1969) notion of social control through social bonds is replaced by that of self-control. The focus of this chapter is on the key concept of the 1990 general theory of crime: low self-control. The second International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-2) is one of the first studies to measure self-control in a large sample of youth from 30 different countries. This provides a unique opportunity to evaluate several claims which have been made-explicitly or implicitly-about the concept of self-control in a comparative context. In this chapter, the authors select three issues from among the large number of potentially interesting research questions which may be derived from self-control theory: one of which is mainly of a methodological and descriptive nature (Sect. 11.2) and two of which are of a substantive and predictive nature (Sects. 11.3 and 11.4). The first issue to be tackled revolves around the measurement of the concept of self-control (reliability, validity, and dimensionality) and the degree to which an abbreviated version of a commonly used scale (i.e., Grasmick et al. 1993) is applicable in different countries and country clusters. The second issue examines commonly used predictors of low self-control (e.g., gender, migration status, grade-as an indicator of age, family, and neighborhood factors) in a comparative context. The third and final issue evaluates the cross-national generalizability of a theoretical model of the impact of low self-control on delinquency, while taking into consideration commonly used variables related to the family, the neighborhood, as well as opportunity. The chapter concludes with summary comments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)