Sociology 2267A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Travis Hirschi, General Strain Theory, Michael R. Gottfredson
13 May 2019
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Document Summary
Until recently, explanations of youth crime were dominated by theoretical perspectives such as strain, differential association, social control, and labelling. Past two decades have seen new and more complex theoretical perspectives: general theory of crime, general strain theory, age-graded theory of social control, control balance theory, differential coercion theory. The general theory of crime: self control. Outlined by michael gottfredson and travis hirschi (1990) Focuses on the key concept of self-control, the ability to restrain oneself from momentary temptations. Underline principle: as human beings we want to pleasure pleasure and avoid pain, some people are less able to resist temptations these people can be characterized by low self- control. These characteristics aren"t biological things they are social things: low self-control: mental disorders adhd, make sense of who is going to be a criminal, criminalize a vulnerable set of the population. Low self-control is the result of an absence of training or infective or incomplete socialization.
