Social Control Theory

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The basic postulate of social control theory is that strong bonds to the major social institutions will prevent delinquency (Steketee, Junger, & Junger-Tas, 2013). The data used in their study is based on the ISRD-2, which was carried out among adolescents in 25 European countries and 5 countries in North and South America. However, literature conveys that family disruptions also play an important role when it comes to girls and delinquent behavior (Junger-Tas et al., 2012) when controlled for the problem of one of the parent with alcohol or drugs, repeated serious conflicts or physical fights between parents, and separation or divorce of parents (Steketee, Junger, & Junger-Tas, 2013). Family disruption in most studies is linked to single…show more content…
Conseur et al.’s (1997) large scale study in Washington State showed that children of teenager or unmarried mothers had a significantly increased risk of offending. Also since juvenile delinquency predicts adolescent delinquency causing an early pregnancy (Smith et al., 2000). In addition, Rochester Youth development study found that the most important mediating factor was the number of parental transitions and was interesting to note that early child-bearing was less harmful when it is less common. Another study focused on the transition among the children of drug-using parent-found that a greater number of transitions were significantly associated with drug use and delinquency by adolescents. The delinquency effect was the same for boys and girls; the drug use effect was found for girls only (Keller, Catalano, Haggerty, & Fleming, 2002). Life…show more content…
It is critical that future research tries to disentangle the causal effects of parental imprisonment from the effects of pre-existing disadvantage more effectively (Murray et al., 2009). Further research should control for the influence of preferential treatment between boys and girls with parental criminal history. Most notably, studies must control for the criminality of parents, as this is such an important risk factor for child outcomes and is so highly associated with parental imprisonment (Murray et al.,
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