Synonyms
Overview
The self-control-crime/deviance link has been well established empirically, with over two decades of studies indicating that self-control is a robust predictor of a host of criminal and analogous behaviors under an equally wide array of methodological conditions. This pattern appears to be such a “given” that the field has largely moved on to other areas of self-control research, such as assessing the other harmful consequences of self-control, like criminal victimization, to testing the degree to which self-control is or is not stable within individuals over time, and to examining the “causes” of low self-control. This entry takes stock of these more recent developments within the self-control tradition.
Introduction
Gottfredson and Hirschi’s (1990) self-control theory has stimulated a considerable amount of research and discussion regarding the influence of low self-control on criminal and analogous behaviors. As originally...
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Recommended Reading and References
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Pratt, T.C., Turanovic, J.J. (2014). General Theory of Crime. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_357
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