Social Control Theory

One of the main key differences that separates control theories from learning theories although both are a subunit of social process theories, is that they have different assumptions of human nature that they based their theory on. For instance, in social control theories, the assumption is that humans are bad by nature; hence, humans need different types of social control that will regulate their behavior. If humans were left to pursue whatever they wanted without following any laws or norms they would commit crimes because everyone is equally capable of this deviant behavior since humans are bad by nature. However, this agencies of social control prevent this. On the other hand, learning theories assume that humans are good by nature. Therefore, the criminal behavior is learned and shaped by human’s social interactions. In other words, humans don’t become criminals by just associating themselves with “bad individuals,” but what leads them to become a criminal is that they learn these deviant behaviors from them. Just like every other learning mechanism, learning criminal
The main focus of social control theories is explaining the factors that inhibit crime. There are four social bonds that regulate from committing crime: attachment, commitment, involvement, and beliefs. The first one attachment, explains that law abiding citizens are most likely to have rich ties with friends, family, and institutions. The stronger that attachment is, the less likely the individual will commit crime because he/she wouldn’t want to disappoint them. On the contrary, criminals tend to have a weak attachment and they have cold relationships almost with everyone. Hence, having no social bond of attachment deterring them from committing crime, they are most likely to engage in