Self-Control as Social Control in Everyday Life

Self-Control is defined as: The ability to forego acts that provide immediate or near-term pleasures, but that also have negative consequences for the actor, and as the ability to act in favor of long-term interests.

I chose self-control theory, which falls under Social-control theory of criminology. I believe that Social-control theory offers one of the best solutions to reducing crime or quite possibly preventing crime on some level. If children are guided thru the early stage of development, they will grow to respect other members of society and are less likely to become delinquent; and less likely to engage in criminal behavior.

Juveniles of today lack parental guidance, because either the father, mother or quite possibly both parents are absent from the youth’s life. I believe the only way to remedy this problem is to have expectant parents to engage in parenting classes and learn how to become better parents.

Another alternative is planned parenthood. If you see you won’t have adequate time for children then you should take measures to prevent becoming pregnant.

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If you can’t be a positive influence in a child’s life, you should wait until you can. Beyond the family schools play a prominent role in the socialization of young people and could also play a key role as an insulating factor against crime. The school can provide support to young people that they may not be receiving elsewhere. School bonds have been found to play such a significant role in violent offending, it seems antithetical for schools to implement “zero tolerance” policies, which only serve to further exclude and isolate young people who have acted violently and sever their ties to the school.

Alternatively, young people deemed to be at risk or delinquent should receive greater support from the school, not less. Its been suggested that policies promoting school cohesion and bonding young people to their schools should be favored.

The self-control theory is often referred to as the general theory of crime. It’s a criminological theory about the lack of self-control as the main factor behind criminal behavior. The self-control theory of crime, suggests that individuals who were inefficiently parented before the age of ten developed less self-control than individuals of the same age who were raised with better parenting. Research has also found that low levels of self-control are correlated with criminal an impulsive conduct. The theory was originally developed by Travis Hirschi and Michael Gottfredson, but has since been subject to a great deal of theoretical debate, and a large and growing empirical literature, springing from interests of dime bonding theory. Hirschi in cooperation with Gottfredson have developed the general theory of crime from 1990 onwards based on the empirical observation of the strong contrast connection between criminal behavior and age. Hirschi and Gottfredson theorized the single most important factor behind crime is individuals lack of self-control. Individual self-control improves with age as a result of many factors. Changing biology through hormonal development, socialization, and opportunity costs of losing control. In addition, criminal acts are often not controlled. They are both are opportunistic and short- sided. The self-control theory of crime shares similar fundamental traits with the theory of ego- depletion. They both state that people are more motivated to pursue their immediate desires and that the satisfaction of their pleasures is universal.

In early Psychology, Psychoanalysts and Neurologist Freud (1911-1959) established a foundation for the concept of self-control with his pleasure principle, and reality- principal. Respectively, these principals refer to the desire for the immediate gratification and the delay of gratification. The pleasure principal drives the individual to look for pleasure and avoid pain. However, the individual learned the necessity of standing the pain and delaying gratification as the process grew up because of the obstacles of the realistic of life following the basic principles.

In recent studies in Psychology, the self-control concept refers to an individual’s decision or the ability to delay immediate gratification of desires in order to reach larger alternate goals, contrary to the general theory of crime that presents low self-control as a characteristic of an individual that influences one’s behavior. The criminal-spin theory presents phenomenological process. This process can be acute, or one time only, that is not typical to the individual; or it can develop into a chronic state, which participation in criminal activities become central to an individual’s life.

In addition, the criminal spin theory claims that such a process that leads to a state of reduced self- control can be seen in individuals. It has been confirmed that self-control is in fact, one of the strongest predictors of crime when compared to a range of factors at various levels of analysis. Other ways besides parental attachments, and school attachments in preventing juveniles from becoming delinquent are religiosity, and roles that the community can play. Such as giving adolescent individuals things to do in their neighborhoods, like afterschool programs to teach the youth skills they may need later in life. Like Sports, or trades that may lead to better paying jobs or give them incentive to start their own business in the future. Or perhaps get them involved in church function. I believe that a juvenile would be less likely to become delinquent I they believed in a higher power and the belief that there is something out there in the universe greater than themselves.