LAWS1110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Control Theory, Achievement Orientation, Differential Association
Document Summary
Control theories - why do we obey rules of society. Look at why we don"t offend rather than why we do. Conformity is maintained by certain social conditions, personal attributes and relationships. Assume sel shness is normal but moral roadblocks are learnt and internalised. Civilisation overlies our essential animalistic natures - when societal controls break down this is evident. Focus is on generation of socialisation and how this stops us from offending. Delinquents forced into these acts bc they have no legitimate ways to reach their goals. Have additional strains or removal of desired factors (compounding risk) Control theory opposes this say humans are essentially amoral and learn morals. Whereas strain theory assumes people start as moral and then society causes people to become amoral. Assume there are a range of levels of conformity rather than saying everyone starts out with the same amount of conformity and then based on strains deviate to differing degrees (strain theory).
