Hirschi's Control Theory

Travis Hirschi, an American control theorist had his own views and ideas on why a delinquent commits crimes. Being a classical, choice theorist, he generated two major versions of control theory. The first being his control theory of delinquency, and this theory was presented in ‘Causes of Delinquency’ (1969), which had an interesting origination in the social disorganisation perspective, which I will go into more detail about. The othe major theory was the Self control theory of Delinquency, mainly presented in Gotttfredson and Hirschi’s ‘A general theory of crime’. This theory proposed that ‘people involved in crime also engage in analogous behaviours that provide short term gratification’ (Gottfredson and Hirschi 1990:91). Crime is also
‘The child playing ping pong, swimming in the community pool or doing his homework is not commiting delinquent acts’ (1969:187). For a child to part take in activities which they will enjoy will keep them out of trouble, Hirschi believed. Finally, Belief, which is stated to mirror a person’s conviction that he or she should obey legal rules. ‘the opinions and impressions that are dependant on constant social reinforcement comprise belief’ (Lilley et al 1995:110). The person will most likely conform to the social norms if they believe in them. Hirishi felt that belief refers to the existence of a common value system within the society whose norms are being violated. These four elements were the main basis behind the control theory of delinquency and he believed if one was to stick by these four variables you would ‘not commit delinquent
The thoughts and ideas of this theory were put together in ‘A General theory of crime’ (Michael Gotfredson and Travis Hirschi 1990). This theory is more of a refined control theory than originally presented over 20 years earlier by Hirschi. Within this theory it is stated that crime was claimed to have flowed from low self control. ‘It can be enjoyable because it involves the exercise of agility, deception or power, and it also requires a lack of sympathy for the victim’. But it does not provide long or medium term benefits. In short, it is, they say, likely to be committed by those who are ‘impulsive, insensitive, physical, risk taking, short sighted and non verbal’ (1990:90). Gottfredson and Hirschi argued that the types of people that who become involved in crime also engage in such behaviours that provide ‘short term gratification’