Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on The Self-Control Theory: Applications to Social Organization. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page review of a criminology theory developed by Michael Gottredson and Travis Hirschi in the 1980s. This theory presents a number of points that are critical in understanding the social phenomena that are in place that both result in crime and that have the potential to prevent crime. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: AM2_PPcrmSlf.rtf
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
A number of theorists have attempted to explain why criminals commit crimes and how they can be
prevented from doing so. From a social organizationalist perspective these theories are important both prior to an individual committing his or her initial crime and after that individual has
been punished for that crime and released into mainstream society. The Self-Control Theory is just one example of such theories. This theory, also known as the "general theory
of crime", was developed by Michael Gottredson and Travis Hirschi in the 1980s (Liska and Messner, 1998). This theory presents a number of points that are critical in understanding
the social phenomena that are in place that both result in crime and that have the potential to prevent crime. Those points are, in fact, reiterated in other major
theories on criminal activity as it applies to society as a whole. The Self-Control Theory contends that criminal behavior is perpetuated to meet
the perpetrators own self-interest. While non-criminals have learned through a process of socialization and training to restrict their desires in the interest of society as a whole, criminals have
not. Gottredson and Hirschi attribute this failure to inadequate or improper child-rearing which result in a low ability for self-control. Under this theory, therefore, criminals are not unique
in that they experience socially forbidden impulses, they are unique in that they fail to exert the self-control necessary to abstain from acting upon those impulses (Roberts, 1995).
Social organizational theorists have used the framework provided by this theory to contend that once a criminal has been cycled through the criminal
...