It is not just petty criminals who commit crimes. Rich and influential businessmen, politicians, bureaucrats and others commit crimes as well. Control theory cannot explain this nor can it explain serious crimes committed by juveniles. The assumption that the family is a law-abiding unit is faulty. Families may have members who have committed crimes and broken laws.
It does not necessarily try to form bonds with the society or individual. There is too much emphasis on bonds between the individual and society. While every society does have certain norms and value systems which try to bring in some control in the individual, it does not mean that deeper bonds between the two will lead to lesser deviance.
The theory views the individual and society in isolation. It fails to address issues like autonomy, impulsiveness and external influences like media.
Thus, it gives a very narrow view of the social structures. Control Theory in sociology can either be classified as centralized, decentralized, or mixed. Decentralized control, or market control, is typically maintained through factors such as price, competition, or market share. Centralized control, such as bureaucratic control, is typically maintained through administrative or hierarchical techniques that create standards or policies.
An example of mixed control is clan control, which contains both centralized and decentralized control. Mixed control is typically maintained by establishing a set of values and beliefs or norms and traditions. While control theory gives an adequate explanation of non-serious forms of youthful delinquency, it fails to explain adult criminal behavior and serious instances of youth crime. Moreover, control theory is met with some resistance for its compliance to a conservative view of the broader social order.
For example, biological and psychological theories sought to identify traits that determined criminality. Strain theories assumed people were good, but bad things happen, which causes many to be pushed into criminal behaviors. Learning theories demonstrated the importance of learning criminal attitudes to commit crimes.
These attitudes, especially when reinforced, will prevail in social situations. Control theories differ in their approach. Control theories assume people are naturally selfish, and if left to their own devices, will commit illegal and immoral acts. Early control theorists argued that there are multiple controls on individuals.
Personal controls are exercised through reflection and following pro-social normative behavior. Social controls originate in social institutions like family, school, and religious conventions.
For example, a married teacher with kids has quite a bit to lose if he or she decided to start selling drugs. If caught, he could lose his job, get divorced, and possibly lose custody of his children.
However, juveniles tend not to have kids nor are they married. They may have a job, but indeed not a career. Since they have fewer stakes in conformity, they would be much more likely to commit crime compared to the teacher. A number of theories related to deviance and criminology have emerged within the past 50 years or so.
For example, juvenile gangs provide an environment in which young people learn to become criminals. These gangs define themselves as countercultural and glorify violence, retaliation, and crime as means to achieving social status.
Gang members learn to be deviant as they embrace and conform to their gang's norms. People learn deviance from the people with whom they associate. The primary contribution of anomie theory is its ability to explain many forms of deviance. The theory is also sociological in its emphasis on the role of social forces in creating deviance. On the negative side, anomie theory has been criticized for its generality.
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