Hirschi

What is Social Control?

• According to Hirschi, social control and social order are maintained through the process of socialisation

• Hirschi’s ideas come from a view of examining why people do not commit crime rather than why they do

• Hirschi suggests that people feel social bonds that control them from committing crime due to the negative impacts of the society they live in

What are bonds of attachment?

People are integrated into society through the social bonds they have

What are the different bonds of attachment?

• Attachment

• Belief

• Commitment

• Involvement

What does attachment mean?

• People have goals and activities they do in order to achieve these goals

• Employment, Education, Family Life, and community involvement could all be interrupted by any possible criminal activity

• This leads to conformity to society’s norms and values- as deviance may mean they lose out on future opportunities -, a e.g. criminal record might influence career prospects

What does belief mean?

• It refers to the individual’s commitment to the norms and values of society

• This is dependent upon the socialisation of individuals into a value consensus

• Individual beliefs that criminal activities are morally wrong will influence them into not committing crime

What does commitment mean?

• It refers to the interactions that people have with others within their community

• Those committed to the community are unlikely to want to go against the wishes of others

• Being committed also refers to the extent to which people will be protective of the interests of others in the community - for example, not committing crime as it would shame their their family

What does involvement mean?

• Involvement within local community means people have less opportunity to commit crime

• People aware of potential damage that criminal behaviour can do to their community

• Alleviates other frustrations such as employment, as status can be gained through being known in community

How does each attachment type lead to crime?

• Hirschi suggests that absence of these controlling factors could lead people to commit crime

• This is heightened if there is an opportunity for crime - lack of social bonds alone is not an explanation according to Hirschi

• Lack of integration and inadequate socialisation into society can impact on an individual’s desire to conform to that society for the greater good

What is the evaluation of Hirschi’s Bonds of Attachment?

• As a control theory, it is suggests that under certain circumstances everyone has potential for deviance and acknowledges social conditions behind crime

• Offers little in the way of explanation for how crime is caused or the specific nature of criminal behaviour

• Assumes that social bonds mean the same to all individuals; it does not explain why some choose not to integrate into community