Gottredson And Hirschi's Theory Analysis

The theory of Gottredson and Hirschi (1990) is the most popular theory in explaining crime. It originated from pure classical theory that people seek to enhance their own pleasure in committing criminal acts without special predisposition. As a whole, the theory is then called today as control theories which emphasize the prevention of crime through consequences painful to the individual in respect to their location and sanctions systems. The theory of Gottfredson and Hirschi became popular because they based it to the criminality of the individual in pursuit of self-interest in relation to self-control. The clear idea of self-control is that, people also differ in the level to which they are susceptible to temptation on the existence of social

First, it could be that parents with criminal records or parents with poor behavior lack discipline, affection and supervision towards their children and that family conditions are related to delinquency as it is stated in the study of Glueck and McCord (as cited in Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990). Children of offenders are strangely exposed to crime. The theory assumes that criminality is not what parents work to produce but is something they should avoid. In this view, parents with criminal records prohibit their children to involve themselves with crime, but this does not mean that they were able to prevent it. Second, low self-control goes with the wrong system parents do. They either do not care for the child or care for them but does not have the energy to monitor them. They also either care and monitor the child but do not see anything wrong or do not have the means to punish the child. When parents fail to monitor what their child is doing inside and outside the home, the child tends to commit crimes as adults because they are permitted to do things without inference. Third, it is said by Patterson (as cited in Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990) that parents fail to recognize the deviant behaviors of their children. They do not see that merely talking back, pushing, trouble in school or poor school performance has a connection to crime. With this, they fail to punish them which is necessary for

Contrary to the study of Kanfer and Karoly, Gottfredson and Hirschi coined the Self-Control Theory (SCT) which claimed that self-control is a consistent predictor of crime and other analogous behavior (see also Grasmick, et.al. 1993; Evans, Cullen, Burton, Jr., Dunaway & Benson, 1997). This assertion gained considerable attention in the Criminological Field resulting to a numerous empirical testing of its theoretical idea (Journal of Criminal Justice (2011). Grasmick, et.al (1993), for example, test the core implication of the theory; Lagrange and Silverman, 1999) test low self-control and opportunity as it correlates to a gender differences in delinquent act; Vazsonyi and Belliston, (2007), test the low self-control and its relation to the family structure in the commission of deviant act. Furthermore, Evans, et.al (1997), supported the claim of Gottfredson and Hirschi that low self-control has a relative effects not just in crime but also on quality life, and other social circumstances. For further example, Unnever and Cornell (2003); Chui & Chan, (2012); Holt, Turner and Exum (2014), support the Self-control theory and claimed that the Attention-Deficiency Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); the