Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- October 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190069797
- eISBN:
- 9780190069834
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190069797.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance, Gerontology and Ageing
Self control is a consistent, robust, and substantial cause of crime, and the foundational facts and other dimensions of the self-control theory of crime have found remarkable support in behavioral ...
More
Self control is a consistent, robust, and substantial cause of crime, and the foundational facts and other dimensions of the self-control theory of crime have found remarkable support in behavioral science. However, not all scholars view the evidence in the same way, and there have been several challenges to the expectations of the theory that merit consideration. Some of these challenges are important for what they say about the limits and contours of the theory; others are important for what they say about the process of theory testing in modern criminology. This chapter discusses methodological issues in testing general theories in criminology. This is followed by a discussion on how to conceptualize control variables and antecedent causes for research. Next, the scope and domain of a theory as relevant to its validity are discussed. In addition, the importance of the definitions of self control and crime is presented. The roles of prior record and of versatility in theory testing are then examined. Finally, a discussion of the tautology issue in self-control theory is presented.Less
Self control is a consistent, robust, and substantial cause of crime, and the foundational facts and other dimensions of the self-control theory of crime have found remarkable support in behavioral science. However, not all scholars view the evidence in the same way, and there have been several challenges to the expectations of the theory that merit consideration. Some of these challenges are important for what they say about the limits and contours of the theory; others are important for what they say about the process of theory testing in modern criminology. This chapter discusses methodological issues in testing general theories in criminology. This is followed by a discussion on how to conceptualize control variables and antecedent causes for research. Next, the scope and domain of a theory as relevant to its validity are discussed. In addition, the importance of the definitions of self control and crime is presented. The roles of prior record and of versatility in theory testing are then examined. Finally, a discussion of the tautology issue in self-control theory is presented.
Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- October 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190069797
- eISBN:
- 9780190069834
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190069797.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance, Gerontology and Ageing
Modern Control Theory and the Limits of Criminal Justice updates and extends the authors’ classic general theory of crime (sometimes referred to as “self-control theory”). In Part I, contemporary ...
More
Modern Control Theory and the Limits of Criminal Justice updates and extends the authors’ classic general theory of crime (sometimes referred to as “self-control theory”). In Part I, contemporary evidence about the theory is summarized. Research from criminology, psychology, economics, education, and public health substantially supports the lifelong influence of self control as a significant cause of problem behaviors, including delinquency and crime, substance abuse, school problems, many forms of accidents, employment instability, and many poor health outcomes. Contemporary evidence is supportive of the theory’s focus on early socialization for creation of higher levels of self control and other dimensions of the theory, including the roles of self control, age and the generality or versatility of problem behaviors, as well as the connections between self control and later teen and adult problem behaviors. The book provides methodological assessments of research on the theory, contrasting the control theory perspective with other developmental perspectives in criminology. The role of opportunity, the relationship between self and social control theory, and the role of motivation are addressed. In Part II, control theory is taken to be a valid theory and is used to explore the role of criminal sanctions, especially policing and prisons, and policies about immigration, as methods to impact crime. Modern control theory provides an explanation for the general lack of effectiveness of formal, state sanctions on crime and instead provides substantial justification for prevention of delinquency and crime by a focus on childhood. The theory effectively demonstrates the limits of criminal sanctions and the connection between higher levels of self control and positive life-course outcomes.Less
Modern Control Theory and the Limits of Criminal Justice updates and extends the authors’ classic general theory of crime (sometimes referred to as “self-control theory”). In Part I, contemporary evidence about the theory is summarized. Research from criminology, psychology, economics, education, and public health substantially supports the lifelong influence of self control as a significant cause of problem behaviors, including delinquency and crime, substance abuse, school problems, many forms of accidents, employment instability, and many poor health outcomes. Contemporary evidence is supportive of the theory’s focus on early socialization for creation of higher levels of self control and other dimensions of the theory, including the roles of self control, age and the generality or versatility of problem behaviors, as well as the connections between self control and later teen and adult problem behaviors. The book provides methodological assessments of research on the theory, contrasting the control theory perspective with other developmental perspectives in criminology. The role of opportunity, the relationship between self and social control theory, and the role of motivation are addressed. In Part II, control theory is taken to be a valid theory and is used to explore the role of criminal sanctions, especially policing and prisons, and policies about immigration, as methods to impact crime. Modern control theory provides an explanation for the general lack of effectiveness of formal, state sanctions on crime and instead provides substantial justification for prevention of delinquency and crime by a focus on childhood. The theory effectively demonstrates the limits of criminal sanctions and the connection between higher levels of self control and positive life-course outcomes.
Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- October 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190069797
- eISBN:
- 9780190069834
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190069797.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance, Gerontology and Ageing
This chapter provides an overview of the self-control theory of crime and delinquency, including a critical review of research literature bearing on the validity of the theory. It discusses research ...
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This chapter provides an overview of the self-control theory of crime and delinquency, including a critical review of research literature bearing on the validity of the theory. It discusses research on the origins of self control in the family and the relationships between levels of self control and delinquency and crime, school performance and misconduct, and other problem behaviors. General reviews of the theory in the literature and meta-analyses for self control, parenting and crime, and prevention studies focused on childhood are also discussed. In addition, the chapter reviews research on age and crime, generality effects, and self control over the life course. There is substantial research support for self-control theory and for the predictions it makes for the criminal justice system and for prevention of crime. Implications for global criminology, micro/macro integration of crime theory, and measurement of self control are discussed.Less
This chapter provides an overview of the self-control theory of crime and delinquency, including a critical review of research literature bearing on the validity of the theory. It discusses research on the origins of self control in the family and the relationships between levels of self control and delinquency and crime, school performance and misconduct, and other problem behaviors. General reviews of the theory in the literature and meta-analyses for self control, parenting and crime, and prevention studies focused on childhood are also discussed. In addition, the chapter reviews research on age and crime, generality effects, and self control over the life course. There is substantial research support for self-control theory and for the predictions it makes for the criminal justice system and for prevention of crime. Implications for global criminology, micro/macro integration of crime theory, and measurement of self control are discussed.
Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- October 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190069797
- eISBN:
- 9780190069834
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190069797.003.0011
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance, Gerontology and Ageing
Research on self control from several disciplines demonstrates that relatively high levels of self control, emerging from childhood, create considerable personal advantages that accumulate throughout ...
More
Research on self control from several disciplines demonstrates that relatively high levels of self control, emerging from childhood, create considerable personal advantages that accumulate throughout life. This chapter summarizes modern control theory and discusses directions for future development. It highlights the advantages of control theory, including disciplinary-free definitions of human nature and self control and the focus on childhood socialization. The potential for advances in measurement and application is described. Contributions of the theory to public policy are summarized. The role of higher levels of self control for lifelong advantages and the benefits of prevention are described as expectations of the theory worthy of considerable attention. The value of the theory for macro and comparative criminology is discussed.Less
Research on self control from several disciplines demonstrates that relatively high levels of self control, emerging from childhood, create considerable personal advantages that accumulate throughout life. This chapter summarizes modern control theory and discusses directions for future development. It highlights the advantages of control theory, including disciplinary-free definitions of human nature and self control and the focus on childhood socialization. The potential for advances in measurement and application is described. Contributions of the theory to public policy are summarized. The role of higher levels of self control for lifelong advantages and the benefits of prevention are described as expectations of the theory worthy of considerable attention. The value of the theory for macro and comparative criminology is discussed.
Gottfredson &
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- October 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190069797
- eISBN:
- 9780190069834
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190069797.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance, Gerontology and Ageing
Control theory doubts a significant effect for criminal sanctions, including policing and imprisonment, on the crime rate. Contemporary research supports that view, especially with respect to ...
More
Control theory doubts a significant effect for criminal sanctions, including policing and imprisonment, on the crime rate. Contemporary research supports that view, especially with respect to variation in severity of sanctions. This chapter reviews historical and recent claims about effects for policing, especially highly selective policing of high-crime-rate areas (hot spot and focused deterrence policing). Saturation policing is not inconsistent with the expectations of control theory, although the evidence of effectiveness is modest, and the research on collateral consequences is not encouraging for highly selective policing. It is noted that selective policing is a variant of situational crime prevention, which does have a considerable body of research support. Control theory predicts the lack of effects for general policing and the collateral negative consequences for selective policing, along with generally positive effects for situational crime prevention and a focus on early childhood undertaken by non-state entities, thus supporting alternative methods to prevent crime.Less
Control theory doubts a significant effect for criminal sanctions, including policing and imprisonment, on the crime rate. Contemporary research supports that view, especially with respect to variation in severity of sanctions. This chapter reviews historical and recent claims about effects for policing, especially highly selective policing of high-crime-rate areas (hot spot and focused deterrence policing). Saturation policing is not inconsistent with the expectations of control theory, although the evidence of effectiveness is modest, and the research on collateral consequences is not encouraging for highly selective policing. It is noted that selective policing is a variant of situational crime prevention, which does have a considerable body of research support. Control theory predicts the lack of effects for general policing and the collateral negative consequences for selective policing, along with generally positive effects for situational crime prevention and a focus on early childhood undertaken by non-state entities, thus supporting alternative methods to prevent crime.
Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- October 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190069797
- eISBN:
- 9780190069834
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190069797.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance, Gerontology and Ageing
Modern control theory doubts the effectiveness of criminal sanctions to affect the crime rate substantially. This view is contrasted with the expectations of the criminal career perspective, a ...
More
Modern control theory doubts the effectiveness of criminal sanctions to affect the crime rate substantially. This view is contrasted with the expectations of the criminal career perspective, a leading view on the nature of crime and the role of the criminal justice system in controlling crime by deterrence and incapacitation. The contrast is illustrated with differing expectations about how age is related to crime (including serious offending), the importance of the versatility effect for offending, and evidence about how changes in incarceration levels are expected to be related to crime rates. On all counts, the results of competent contemporary research support the expectations of the general theory of crime over the expectations of criminal career/career criminal traditions. The research on statistical modeling and offender typologies in the criminal careers tradition has not provided consistent or replicated results demonstrating that criminal sanctions effectively incapacitate or deter offending. Control theory is inconsistent with mass incarceration, with the belief that increasing severity of sanctions reduces crime rates either by incapacitation or by deterrence, and notes that crime tends overwhelmingly to decline with age for all offenders beginning in early adulthood.Less
Modern control theory doubts the effectiveness of criminal sanctions to affect the crime rate substantially. This view is contrasted with the expectations of the criminal career perspective, a leading view on the nature of crime and the role of the criminal justice system in controlling crime by deterrence and incapacitation. The contrast is illustrated with differing expectations about how age is related to crime (including serious offending), the importance of the versatility effect for offending, and evidence about how changes in incarceration levels are expected to be related to crime rates. On all counts, the results of competent contemporary research support the expectations of the general theory of crime over the expectations of criminal career/career criminal traditions. The research on statistical modeling and offender typologies in the criminal careers tradition has not provided consistent or replicated results demonstrating that criminal sanctions effectively incapacitate or deter offending. Control theory is inconsistent with mass incarceration, with the belief that increasing severity of sanctions reduces crime rates either by incapacitation or by deterrence, and notes that crime tends overwhelmingly to decline with age for all offenders beginning in early adulthood.
Pierre-Loïc Garoche
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691181301
- eISBN:
- 9780691189581
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691181301.003.0007
- Subject:
- Mathematics, Applied Mathematics
This chapter summarizes an attempt to express classical notions of control theory such as stability or robustness using the previously presented invariant-based tools. All numerical tools presented ...
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This chapter summarizes an attempt to express classical notions of control theory such as stability or robustness using the previously presented invariant-based tools. All numerical tools presented in previous chapters were focused on the precise over-approximation of reachable states. However, this chapter argues that it is important to be able to express higher level properties than just bounding reachable states. The idea that drove the invariants and template synthesis after all was this notion of Lyapunov functions and of Lyapunov stability. Assuming a control level property, it would be extremely interesting to be able to express this property over the code or model artifact. A main limitation for the study of these control level properties is the need for the plant description, which is generally not available when considering code artifact. As such, this chapter assumes the plant semantics is provided in a discrete fashion and therefore amenable to code level description as presented in Chapter 3.Less
This chapter summarizes an attempt to express classical notions of control theory such as stability or robustness using the previously presented invariant-based tools. All numerical tools presented in previous chapters were focused on the precise over-approximation of reachable states. However, this chapter argues that it is important to be able to express higher level properties than just bounding reachable states. The idea that drove the invariants and template synthesis after all was this notion of Lyapunov functions and of Lyapunov stability. Assuming a control level property, it would be extremely interesting to be able to express this property over the code or model artifact. A main limitation for the study of these control level properties is the need for the plant description, which is generally not available when considering code artifact. As such, this chapter assumes the plant semantics is provided in a discrete fashion and therefore amenable to code level description as presented in Chapter 3.
James M. Jasper, Michael P. Young, and Elke Zuern
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190050047
- eISBN:
- 9780190050078
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190050047.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
Starting from the hero Jon Snow, in Game of Thrones, this chapter turns to several traditions of psychology to show the cognitive processes by which people put together small pieces of information in ...
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Starting from the hero Jon Snow, in Game of Thrones, this chapter turns to several traditions of psychology to show the cognitive processes by which people put together small pieces of information in order to see others as “persons.” Public characters are a prominent special case of this process. According to affect control theory, strength, morality, and activity represent three basic dimensions along which people judge others—and build them into characters in public arenas. People make snap judgments about others’ morality and strength, and move away from these judgments reluctantly and slowly in the face of contrary evidence. People tend to see more consistency and coherence in others than the evidence warrants.Less
Starting from the hero Jon Snow, in Game of Thrones, this chapter turns to several traditions of psychology to show the cognitive processes by which people put together small pieces of information in order to see others as “persons.” Public characters are a prominent special case of this process. According to affect control theory, strength, morality, and activity represent three basic dimensions along which people judge others—and build them into characters in public arenas. People make snap judgments about others’ morality and strength, and move away from these judgments reluctantly and slowly in the face of contrary evidence. People tend to see more consistency and coherence in others than the evidence warrants.
Pierre-Loïc Garoche
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691181301
- eISBN:
- 9780691189581
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691181301.003.0004
- Subject:
- Mathematics, Applied Mathematics
This chapter presents the formalisms describing discrete dynamical systems and gives an overview on the convex optimization tools and methods used to compute the analyses. A dynamical system is a ...
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This chapter presents the formalisms describing discrete dynamical systems and gives an overview on the convex optimization tools and methods used to compute the analyses. A dynamical system is a typical object used in control systems or in signal processing. In some cases, it is eventually implemented in a program to perform the desired feedback control to a cyber-physical system. Language-wise, model-based languages such as LUSTRE, ANSYS SCADE, or MATLAB Simulink provide primitives to build these dynamical systems or controllers relying on simpler constructs. In terms of programs, such dynamical systems can easily be implemented as a “while true loop” initialized by the initial state and performing the update f. The simplest systems are usually directly coded in the target language, while more advanced systems are compiled through autocoders.Less
This chapter presents the formalisms describing discrete dynamical systems and gives an overview on the convex optimization tools and methods used to compute the analyses. A dynamical system is a typical object used in control systems or in signal processing. In some cases, it is eventually implemented in a program to perform the desired feedback control to a cyber-physical system. Language-wise, model-based languages such as LUSTRE, ANSYS SCADE, or MATLAB Simulink provide primitives to build these dynamical systems or controllers relying on simpler constructs. In terms of programs, such dynamical systems can easily be implemented as a “while true loop” initialized by the initial state and performing the update f. The simplest systems are usually directly coded in the target language, while more advanced systems are compiled through autocoders.
