Self-control and morality and their role in the dynamics of juvenile delinquency

How are morality, self-control, and adolescent crime rates related? Based on the current state of knowledge, morality and self-control are important predictors of criminal behaviour, and their interaction is crucial (assumptions of the Situational Action Theory and partially General Theory of Crime). This thesis aims to test the abovementioned relationships among adolescents in the Czech Republic and further examine hypotheses aimed at better understanding the relationship between the structure of moral foundations (Moral Foundations Theory) to self-control and crime. Based on a questionnaire survey of 110 adolescents (15-25 years old) in the Czech Republic, the hypotheses that adolescents with higher levels of morality and self-control are less likely to commit a crime and that the so-called "individualising" moral motive is related to higher levels of self- control and lower rates of crime were supported. The result of this study is that when the adolescent's morality is high, he or she does not "need" self-control not to commit a crime; on the contrary, when the adolescent's level of morality is low, self-control plays an important role. Keywords Situational Action Theory, moral foundations, interaction