ATS1281 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Five Techniques, Delayed Gratification, Social Control Theory
8 May 2018
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UNDERSTANDING CRIME: LECTURE 7
Control Theories
Dr Kathryn Benier
The Marshmallow Experiment
• Interested in self-control and deferred gratification
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX_ov9614HQ
• 30% of children were able to wait
• Children who delayed gratification were more successful later in life
• Higher test scores at school and lower BMI
Why do you not commit crime?
• Would you claim additional hours on your timesheet if no one could verify your
claim?
• Would you cheat on an exam if no one was going to catch you?
• Would you shoplift if no one was watching?
• Would you engage in violence if there were no consequences?
Control Theories
• Guidig uestio is h do people ofo? athe tha h do people break
the la?
• Individuals commit crime because of weaknesses associated with restraint
• Not driven to be criminal but crime is a breakdown of controls
• Criminality is natural – conformity is what needs to be explained
• Conformity is quite fragile
Sources of Control
• Internal
• Youg peso ill esist deiae eause its the ight thig to do
• Through a conscience – Super Ego
• Koig its oall the og thig to do
• External
• Threatened or might have a punishment applied for doing the wrong thing
• Compliance with rules may be rewarded
• Informal
• Teachers, parents, friends
• Formal
• Police, courts, religious leader
• Crime is a result of a breakdown in controlling forces
• If all a idiiduals eeds ae et thee is o eed to egage i iial atiit
Early ideas aout Cotrol ad Cofority
• Reiss (1951)
• Personal Control (11-17 year olds)
• How well do juveniles resist socially unacceptable methods of
reaching goals?
• Individual control is based on development of the Super-Ego (Freud)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• Conformity = accepting rules and norms as their own
• Delinquency = rejecting rules and norms
Containment Theory (1967)
• Reckless (1967)
• Why is conformity the norm, given all of the available opportunities and
pressures towards deviance?
• Protective factors:
• Inner containment – individual factors, regardless of the external
circumstances (eg. development of super-ego, a sense of direction,
ability to find legitimate fulfilment, commitment to laws and values)
• Self-concept
• Koig oue la aidig
• Goal orientation
• Having legitimate goals and realistic expectations
• Frustration tolerance
• Capacity for coping with socially induced frustration
• Norm-retention
• How strongly you adhere to the values, norms, rules,
las of the soiet oue liig i
• Outer containment – reinforcement by social groups, existence of
supportive relationships (eg. reasonable expectations, sense of
belonging and identity, supportive relationships, adequate discipline)
David Matza – Delinquency and Drift (1964)
• Do not reject conventional moral values, but eutalise the, so that the a
commit delinquent acts
• Techniques of neutralisation allow for episodic relief from moral constraints
• Enables young people to drift back and forth between deviant and
conventional behaviour without having to deal with guilt and shame
• Offenders can neutralise social and internal controls that typically act to inhibit
deviance
Sykes & Matza: Techniques of Neutralisation
• Five techniques of neutralisation
• Denial of responsibility
• I ouldt help self
• Denial of injury
• ood got hut
• Denial of victim
• the had it oig
• Condemnation of condemners
• hat ight do the hae to itiise e?
• Appeal to higher loyalties
• I did it fo soeoe else
• People use eutalisatio to dift i ad out of oetioal ehaious
• Explains why people are not delinquent all the time
Techniques of Neutralisation: Illegal Downloading
1. Denial of responsibility
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Interested in self-control and deferred gratification: https://www. youtube. com/watch?v=qx_ov9614hq, 30% of children were able to wait, children who delayed gratification were more successful later in life, higher test scores at school and lower bmi. Control theories: guidi(cid:374)g (cid:395)uestio(cid:374) is (cid:862)(cid:449)h(cid:455) do people (cid:272)o(cid:374)fo(cid:396)(cid:373)? (cid:863) (cid:396)athe(cid:396) tha(cid:374) (cid:862)(cid:449)h(cid:455) do people break the la(cid:449)? (cid:863) Individuals commit crime because of weaknesses associated with restraint: not driven to be criminal but crime is a breakdown of controls, criminality is natural conformity is what needs to be explained, conformity is quite fragile. Informal: teachers, parents, friends, formal, police, courts, religious leader, crime is a result of a breakdown in controlling forces. If all a(cid:374) i(cid:374)di(cid:448)idual(cid:859)s (cid:374)eeds a(cid:396)e (cid:373)et the(cid:396)e is (cid:374)o (cid:374)eed to e(cid:374)gage i(cid:374) (cid:272)(cid:396)i(cid:373)i(cid:374)al a(cid:272)ti(cid:448)it(cid:455) Individual control is based on development of the super-ego (freud: conformity = accepting rules and norms as their own, delinquency = rejecting rules and norms.
