Search

Extensive empirical evidence suggests that self-control plays an important part in the production of violence and other criminal acts. Therefore, it would seem that any policies designed to control violence must pay attention to weak self-control and ways to improve it or to counter its influences. However, effective policies rest on fuller accounts than those provided by self-control theory. Several potential weaknesses in the theory make it problematic for fashioning programs to control misconduct. Six such weaknesses and their potential implications are identified, and ways of overcoming those deficiencies are offered. It is concluded that self-control theory holds promise as a beginning for policy formation but it must be elaborated and integrated with other theories before it is likely to provide effective guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section offers a logical and empirical critique of the theory introduced by Mark Colvin and John Pauly, a formulation which blends micro and macro explanations to produce a unified structural-Marxist theory of delinquency production. The basic thesis of the Colvin/Pauly theory is that serious patterned delinquency, defined by them as repeated engagement of a juvenile in the Part One Index crimes of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. One causal link in the chain of Colvin and Pauly's theory is that between family control structure and consequent control within the school and peer group.