Most theories that attempt to discover the cause of crime focus on the individual and what factors influence them to commit crime. However, social control theories focus on the question “Why don’t people commit crime?” Since the majority of society does not commit crimes, social control theories try to discover the reason people do not commit crime instead of trying to figure out why they do. The notion of social control relates to formal or informal relationships that keep people within certain bounds of what is socially acceptable because they do not want to harm those relationships. Social control theories focus on those relationships.

4.7.1 Containment Theory

American criminologist Walter Reckless (1961) believed that crime was the consequence of social pressures to involve oneself in violations of the law, as well as a failure to resist such pressures. When Reckless looked at criminality, he compared it to a biological immune response saying that not everyone who is exposed to a disease contracts it. Sickness, like crime, results from a failure of control mechanisms which can be either internal or external. He called his approach containment theory.

External containment consists of “the holding of the power of the group” (Reckless, 1967). In our society, groups are able to hold the individual within the bounds of accepted norms and expectations. These groups can range from family to athletic teams to church groups. Inner containment is the ability of an individual to follow the expected norms to guide their behavior. This is enhanced if the individual has a positive self-image, focuses on socially approved goals, has a good tolerance for frustration, and their personal aspirations are in line with reality. For example, if an individual has a positive self-image, they can avoid the temptations of crime by knowing that activity does not align with who they see themselves to be, and by focusing on socially approved goals, the individual can stay on the straight and narrow path and not drift toward criminality.

Everyone is pushed and pulled toward crime. An individual’s background may aid in pushing them toward crime, or the perceived rewards of crime can help in pulling the individual toward crime. For example, external containment can be the police while inner containment could be religious teachings or the possibility of being removed from a particular sports team if arrested. According to Reckless, containment is a stabilizing force. When it is effective, it blocks the pushes and pulls that tempt an individual toward crime.

4.7.2 Social Bond Theory

In his social bond theory, American sociologist Travis Hirschi (1969) argued that through successful socialization, a bond forms between individuals and the social group that limits criminal behavior. When a bond is weakened, then the result is crime and deviance. Hirschi believed that there were four components of the social bond: attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief.

1. Attachment refers to the level at which someone cares about their family, friends, employer, coworkers, and community and what those people think of them and their behavior.
2. Commitment is about someone’s personal or career goals and how committed they are to achieving those.
3. Involvement is about the level to which someone is engaged in work or other activities and what all takes up their time.
4. Belief refers to the amount someone agrees with the norms, values, rules, and laws to which they are being held or are expected to conform.

For example, a teenager may be tempted to steal alcohol with their friends from a convenience store but they fear getting caught because:

• they do not want their parents to be disappointed in them (attachment),
• a criminal record would make them ineligible for the scholarship they are working toward (commitment),
• they have to babysit their little brother in the morning so they don’t want to be out late anyway (involvement), and
• they don’t think it is right to steal or to drink (belief).

For all of these reasons, they decide to go home before their friends go to the store so they will not be involved in a crime.

But why, if someone has all the social components of attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief, would they still commit a crime? Hirschi and educational psychologist Linda Gottfredson (1990) proposed a general theory of crime that looked at the connection between self-control and crime. A well-developed social bond will result in the creation of effective mechanisms of self-control, or being able to weigh the options and consequences to make the decision to resist temptation. They believed that self-control is acquired early in life and that low self-control is the main individual-level cause of crime. Hirschi and Gottfredson saw the lack of self-control as the result of the lack of parental emotional investment in their child. This belief can transfer the blame for criminal behavior from society to the parents/individual.