Social Control Theories Of Crime

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Since all human beings have innate traits and weaknesses, sociologists do not see any problem in explaining why individuals indulge in criminal activities. Criminology is defined as a branch of sociology that gives an account of the causes of crime, some of the effects of crime and their social implications in the society. The development of human beings is controlled by traits that individuals are born with (Siegel 2010). Criminology theories explain the existence of certain behaviours in individuals but do not give an account of why criminal rates change from one place to another. There have been many theories explaining why crime exists in the society today. These theories use facts through observations of factors which are associated with …show more content…
This theory was developed based on social control. Control theories focus on the control factors which miss in the criminal personalities. As opposed to the other theories which explain why people in a society commit crime, this theory explains why people do not commit crimes in the society. The control theory is divided into two; social control theory and self-control theory. These theories focus on human weaknesses which may lead an individual into criminal offenses. They explain that if individuals do not overcome these weaknesses due to certain temptations. For this reason, criminology is viewed as a vice that everyone in a given population is exposed to or is at risk and it is only avoided by those who maintain high degrees of integrity in the social …show more content…
For example, an individual may fail to refrain from psychiatric sense of meeting his/her needs. Additionally, the theory argues about conformity where people risk in doing things without caring about the future expectations of the society. The family is the main pillar of socialization. Therefore, among other theories, the social control theory attributes criminal offenses in the elderly to the families. This is because the family is always the initial pillar in a child’s care including rectification the child’s behaviour. Parental involvement is also a factor in the social setting of an individual’s behaviour. For example, the parenting styles could be too permissive. This may lead the child to drug addiction, property crimes and other violent crimes. Parental attachment and care giving practices to individuals especially the youths have been associated with an increase in criminal activities amongst individuals (Vito & Maaths, 2012). Vito and Maaths, in their study found out that, people who exhibited less criminal offenses had a strong attachment to their parent’s good care and supervision in their early stages of

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