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Social Process Theories: Origins, Development, and Control Theory
Criminology · Chapter 7: Sociological Theories of Crime and DevianceSection 7.4 · lesson 25 of 91video coming soon
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In this lesson
Origins, development, and the question of why most people conform.
- Explain how process theories differ from structural ones.
- Describe social bond theory's four elements.
- Explain self-control theory and its objections.
- Identify what control theories leave unaddressed.
Transcript
Everything said in the video, section by section (984 words). Read along, or search it.
Opening Question
Why Most Disadvantaged People Don't Offend
Same street, same disadvantage. Rio and his friends walk past the same closed shops every day. Structural theories explain why this neighborhood's rate is elevated. But most people living under even the most disadvantaged conditions never offend. If disadvantage explained offending directly, rates in such settings would be far higher than they are. So what separates the few who offend from the many who don't? That's the process turn: the answer lies in interactions and relationships. It doesn't discard structural findings; it asks a question at a different level.
Core Idea
Control Theory Reverses the Question
Control theory answers with a genuine reversal. Strain theory asks why people offend: what pushes them toward it? Control theory asks why most people don't: what restrains them? Conformity, not deviance, becomes the outcome to explain. The assumption: the temptation to offend is widely distributed, so offending needs no special push. What needs explaining is whatever holds most people back.
Definition
Four Bond Elements and Attachment
Social bond theory names four elements of a person's bond to conventional society, each restraining offending in its own way. Attachment is emotional connection to conventional others, such as family, teachers, and peers. Rio values their good opinion, and doesn't want to risk losing it.
Definitions
Commitment, Involvement, and Belief
Commitment is investment in conventional lines of action, such as education or a career. Offending puts that investment at risk, so a person with more to lose has more reason to conform. Involvement is simply time spent in conventional activities, which leaves less time and opportunity for anything else. And belief is acceptance that conventional rules are legitimate, which is different from following rules out of habit or fear.
Applications
Each Weakened Bond Has a Remedy
Each element weakens under a distinct condition, and suggests its own intervention. Attachment weakens through relational rupture or exclusion; mentoring and relationship-building can strengthen it. Commitment weakens when advancement seems closed off; concrete educational or vocational access restores it. Involvement weakens with lots of unstructured, unsupervised time; structured activities fill it. Belief weakens when rules seem illegitimate or unfairly applied; the remedy is consistent, fair, transparent application. Those pairings are specific, which makes the theory unusually practical for program design.
Evidence
Bonds and Offending Influence Each Other
Social bond theory has substantial support. Attachment to conventional others shows a particularly persistent link with lower offending, across many settings and populations. But it faces the direction-of-causation problem: do weak bonds cause offending, or does offending weaken bonds? Offending might damage a relationship with a parent, or lead a school to exclude a student; then weak attachment is a consequence, not a cause. Cross-sectional data, measuring both at one moment, can't resolve that. It takes longitudinal data following the same people over time, and even good longitudinal studies find influence running both ways. So the honest reading is a two-way relationship, not a one-way cause.
Related Theory
Self-Control Theory and Early Childhood
Self-control theory, the bridge from six point six, makes a more ambitious claim: low self-control is set relatively early in childhood, and stays relatively stable afterward. It accounts not only for crime, but for analogous risky behaviors that trade a long-term cost for an immediate benefit. It names the family and the school as the institutions that build self-control, through consistent monitoring, recognizing problem behavior, and applying appropriate consequences. That gives a clear, if narrow, policy target: support effective early monitoring and consistent response in families and schools.
Critique
Three Objections to Self-Control Theory
Its ambition draws three objections. First, the stability claim: research finds self-control changes measurably across the life course, so scores that shift after a major life transition challenge it. Second, tautology: low self-control is sometimes defined by the very risky behaviors it's meant to explain, which makes the claim circular. Third, offenses requiring planning and position fit poorly with a theory built on impulsivity, like an offense planned over weeks by someone in a position of trust. By contrast, a childhood measure that predicts many risky adult behaviors supports the theory.
Preview
Containment, Drift, and Neutralization
Two related ideas are named here for later. Containment theory proposes that inner controls, such as a strong self-concept, and outer controls, such as supervision, work together to contain the pressure toward offending. Drift and neutralization describe how rationalizations can neutralize guilt, so a person drifts between conventional and deviant conduct, without committing permanently to either. The shared thread: conformity is actively maintained, not automatic. Chapter eight develops them.
Case Study
An After-School Program and Involvement
A case. A youth program places adolescents in a structured after-school activity several days a week. An evaluator notes it has no deliberate mentoring, and no discussion of whether the program's rules are legitimate. Which bond element does it most directly strengthen? Pause, and decide. Involvement. It leaves attachment and belief largely untouched. That's process theory's policy direction: build bonds and capacity, rather than mainly raising penalties. Deterrence changes the calculus of one opportunity; bond-building changes the restraint a person brings to every opportunity.
Open Question
Who Defines the Conventional Order
Control theories explain restraint well, but leave one question open: what defines the conventional order a person is bonded to, and who decides what counts as conventional? Bond theory assumes conventional is a settled, shared category. That works while the content of the conventional order isn't in dispute. But across communities within one society, that order is often contested, and a person may be strongly bonded to norms another observer wouldn't call conventional at all. Who defines the conventional, and in whose interest, is exactly where Chapter eight's conflict tradition begins.
Quick Check
A Lost Teacher Relationship
Quick check from the practice set. A student loses a close relationship with a supportive teacher. Which bond element is affected? Pause, and decide. Attachment. A blocked path to a credential would be commitment; unsupervised afternoons, involvement; and a rule seen as unfairly applied, belief.
Key Takeaways
Process Theories Recap and Next Topic
Let's recap. Process theories ask why most people under disadvantage don't offend. Control theory explains conformity, not deviance. Bonds have four elements, attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief, each with its own weak point and remedy; and bonds and offending shape each other. Self-control theory is ambitious, and contested on stability, tautology, and planned offenses. Next, Subchapter seven point five turns to social learning theory and symbolic interactionism.
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About Social Process Theories: Origins, Development, and Control Theory
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What do control theories leave unexplained?
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