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PERSONAL CAPITAL AND SOCIAL CONTROL: THE DETERRENCE IMPLICATIONS OF A THEORY OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN CRIMINAL OFFENDING *
Author(s) -
NAGIN DANIEL S.,
PATERNOSTER RAYMOND
Publication year - 1994
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.1745-9125.1994.tb01166.x
Subject(s) - deviance (statistics) , social control theory , criminology , deterrence (psychology) , social control , crime control , positive economics , control (management) , criminal behavior , social psychology , psychology , life course approach , sociology , economics , juvenile delinquency , social science , criminal justice , statistics , mathematics , management
A large and growing literature links stable individual differences established early in life to deviant behavior through the life course. This literature challenges basic premises of modern sociological and economic theories of deviance that emphasize explanatory factors that are more proximate in time and external to the individual. In this paper we present and test a theory designed to link rational choice and social control theories with two leading examples of theories that emphasize stable individual differences (Wilson and Herrnstein, 1985; Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990). Based on appeals to the economic theory of investment, we argue that individuals who are more present oriented and self‐centered invest less in social bonds and therefore are less deterred from committing crime by the possibility of damage to such bonds. Thus, our theory, which builds from key constructs of the Gottfredson‐Hir‐schi and Wilson‐Herrnstein theories, departs from those theories with the contention that social control does matter.