Control theory, rational choice and routine activity

Why don't people commit crime?
1. All of us are potential deviants
  1. What stops us?
    1. 1. Legal controls
    2. 2. Social controls
    3. 3. Opportunities to commit crime
Control theoryHirschi 1969: ‘The Causes of Delinquency’
1. Reaction to previous theories
  1. Strain Theory: Merton
2. Empirical study (self report study)
  1. Crime spread across social groups
  2. Overprediction of working class
    1. White collar crime not incorporated
    2. -Middle class is committing crime just as much as lower class
3. ‘‘Only control theory fits the facts’
4. Key idea: Delinquent acts result when the individual’s bond to society is weak or broken’ (Hirschi 1969:16)
5. Social bonds: “stake in conformity”
  1. Attachment
    1. What people think of you?
      1. If you don’t care then you do whatever you want
    2. Emotional aspect
  2. Commitment
    1. Build up a business Reputation Less likely to commit crime All the hard work you put in something Trapped in the prison of your own making
    2. Rational aspect
  3. Involvement
    1. How much time and how much energy you put into conventional things I’m a bit tired, don’t wanna go stealing
    2. Rational aspect
  4. Beliefs
    1. Non-religious How much you believe that you should obey the rules of society Very subjective Some laws more than others, like cannabis
    2. Moral aspect
  5. -trapped in a prison of your own making -social bond that everyone has -four elements that everyone has -can be weaker or stronger in different moments in your life
  6. Extending the model…Steven Box (1981): Deviance, Reality and Society
    1. Why do some people commit crime, while others do not?
    2. ABILITY to offend depends on:
      1. Secrecy
        The chanceyou think you get away with it
      2. Skills
        Need to know who to do it, commit the offence
      3. Supply
        Special skills
      4. Social support
        Someone helps you like friends
      5. Symbolic support
        Moral justification, you don´t have any money for instance
    3. WISH to offend depends on
      1. Subterranean values (Matza and Sykes 1961):
        Excitement Spontinatinaty Excitement
        Gangs and the subculture
      2. Excitement
      3. confirmation of identity;
      4. material gain;
      5. creativity
    4. Everyone would, if you could
    5. Marxist criminologist
Differential social controls
1. Girls are not different in a biological way, but are raised in a different way. Greater attachment bond. Different gender pattern
2. Less prepared to take risks. Social expectations. Family, reputation. Reinforced by their peer groups
3. Backed up by research. In particular. Reduces a greater disparity. Less likely to commit crime
4. Feminize social control: more control over boys. But also good sign that more girls commit crime than before, they are freer
Policy implications
1. Education Parenting Creating leisure opportunities Family values Boosting conventional morality
2. Oppressive and repressive?
3. Limitations
  1. Underplays role of social structures and deeper social controls.
    1. Not all families are the same
    2. What is ignoring is broader social structures
    3. Women oversocialised? Where does that come from?
  2. Ignores nature of law and law enforcement
    1. It ignores how law actually works: labelling by the police
  3. Ignores different forms of crime
    1. In the riots e.g.: why do people start to loot
  4. Ignores different motivations
    1. It is important why people offend, but no emphasis on it
Rational choice theories: key ideas
1. Cost/ benefit calculation.
2. How do offenders make choices?
3. How can choices be influenced?
4. Policy implications
  1. Manipulate environment
  2. Situational crime prevention (Clarke 1992):
    1. Increase effort
      1. Pin on card
    2. Increase risks
      1. CCTV
    3. Reduce reward
      1. Mark property to make it less vulnarable
5. Link to classical criminology
6. “Contemporary classicism”
Bounded’ rationalitySOURCE: Farrell and Pease (2006:187)
1. Stil rational
Routine activity theory(Cohen and Felson 1979)
1. How is crime situated in everyday life? ‘Chemistry for crime’: Motivated offenders Suitable targets Absence of capable guardians Must converge in time and space

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Control theory, rational choice and routine activity

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