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SOCIAL CONTROL THEORY AND DELINQUENCY: A LONGITUDINAL TEST
Author(s) -
AGNEW ROBERT
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
criminology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.467
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1745-9125
pISSN - 0011-1384
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1985.tb00325.x
Subject(s) - juvenile delinquency , social control theory , psychology , longitudinal study , test (biology) , social control , longitudinal data , panel data , control (management) , variance (accounting) , social psychology , criminology , econometrics , economics , mathematics , statistics , demography , political science , sociology , management , accounting , law , biology , paleontology
Hirschi's (1969) control theory has received much empirical support and, as a consequence, has become one of the dominant theories of delinquency. Virtually all tests of the theory, however, have been conducted with cross‐sectional data. This is a serious problem since there is good reason to believe that delinquency may have a causal impact on social control. This paper describes a longitudinal test of Hirschi's theory using panel data from a national sample of adolescent boys. Data indicate that the social control variables explain only 1%‐2% of the variance in future delinquency, suggesting that cross‐sectional studies have exaggerated the importance of Hirschi's theory. Possible reasons for the small longitudinal effect of the control variables are discussed.