Sociology 2267A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Travis Hirschi, Michael R. Gottfredson, Balance Theory
31 Aug 2020
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SOC 2267 650
Week 2: Lesson 4 - New Theoretical Perspectives on Youth Crime
Learning Objectives
• Identify and distinguish the new theoretical perspectives developed to explain youth
crime
• Better understand the way different theoretical concepts can be integrated to better
understand youth crime
• Appreciate the complexity required to understand youth crime
• Recognize some of the empirical weaknesses of theoretical approaches offered to
explain youth crime
Introduction
• Until recently, explanations of youth crime were dominated by the theoretical
perspectives such as strain, differential association, social control, and labelling theory
• The past two decades have seen new and more complex theoretical perspectives:
◦ General strain theory of crime
◦ General strain theory
◦ Age-graded theory of social control
◦ Control balance theory
◦ Differential coercion theory
◦ Situational action theory
The General Theory of Crime: Self-Control
• Outlined by Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi (1990)
• Focuses on the key concept of self-control, the ability to restrain oneself from
momentary temptations
◦ Low self control: Six characteristics that leave individuals less able to refrain form
activities that provide short-term pleasure or gain
SOC 2267 650
Characteristics of Low Self-Control
• Impulsivity
◦ The inability to defer gratification or to control impulses as well as the inclination
to focus on events that are taking place in the here and now
• Lack of Diligence
◦ People who lack diligence will choose the quickest path to satisfy their desires
even if the long-term consequences are negative
• Risk-Taking
◦ People with low self-control enjoy engaging in activities that provide adventure,
thrills, and excitement, including criminal acts
• Physicality
◦ The tendency to be physical as opposed to valuing or possessing cognitive or
academic skills
◦ Most criminal acts simply entail physically hurting others or taking their property
and are undertaken impulsivity based on in-the-moment decisions
• Insensitivity
◦ Those who lack self-control are egotistical and unconcerned about the needs of
others
◦ Criminal acts often leave victims in pain if physically harmed, or feeling violate if
their property has been stolen
• Low Frustration Tolerance
◦ Those with low self-control have low frustration tolerance and respond
negatively to events that they interpret as irritating
Convenience and Opportunity
SOC 2267 650
• Although low self-control leaves one more likely to commit a crime, a person also
requires the convenience and opportunity to commit the crime
• Low self-control has social consequences that shape people's ability to succeed in social
institutions and from social bonds
◦ The degree to which individuals, through socialization, have connected to people
and institutions in society and believe in the rules of the society
Causes of Variation in Self-Control
• Low self-control is the result of an absence of training or ineffective or incomplete
socialization
• Teaching self-control requires the caregivers:
◦ Monitor a child's behaviour
◦ Recognize characteristics of low self-control
◦ Sanction and correct those behaviours
• Child-rearing can be undermined in a variety of ways
General Strain Theory (GST)
• Outlined by Robert Agnew (1992, 2001), GST focuses on emotional reactions to negatiev
situations or strains and details how other factors can influence people in their choice to
cope with strain through either criminal or noncriminal means
◦ Strain: Experiences or situations that individuals percieve as being negative,
cerating negative emotional reactions that provides possible incentive for using
crime as a coping mechanism using coping mechanism
Types of Strain
• Failure to Achieve Goals
◦ Can take three different forms:
1. The disjunction between aspirations and expected achievements
Document Summary
Week 2: lesson 4 - new theoretical perspectives on youth crime. The general theory of crime: self-control: outlined by michael gottfredson and travis hirschi (1990, focuses on the key concept of self-control, the ability to restrain oneself from momentary temptations. Low self control: six characteristics that leave individuals less able to refrain form activities that provide short-term pleasure or gain. Types of strain: failure to achieve goals, can take three different forms, the disjunction between aspirations and expected achievements. Conditoning factors: there are a number of different factors that will increase or buffer the effect of strain, influencing whether a person will adopt a criminal or non-criminal coping strategy on response to strain: Level of self-esteem: association with deviant peers, and values related to deviant behaviour, amount of blame assigned to others, availability and quality of social support, personality (emotionality and amount of constraint)
