Toby, Jackson: Stake in Conformity

Social control theorists attempt to explain conformity to the rules and norms of society, not delinquency. Delinquent behavior is treated as a given; thus it is conformity that must be explained. [Page 963]Many different variations of social control theory exist, yet they all focus on the social influences that work to restrain individuals to keep them from engaging in illegal behavior.

Jackson Toby, a sociology professor at Rutgers University, first introduced the concept of stake in conformity in 1957 with his published article titled “Social Disorganization and Stake in Conformity: Complementary Factors in the Predatory Behavior of Hoodlums.” Toby wanted to explain why property delinquency rates were high in the United States despite the economic prosperity enjoyed by most Americans. Toby referred to the offenders who typically committed the acts of burglary, robbery, and auto theft as “hoodlum type thieves” who were usually young and resided in lower-class neighborhoods. Delinquents had little or nothing to lose by their illegal behavior and were therefore less likely to resist the temptations of delinquency. Families exercise control over their children; however, parental controls start to lose their effectiveness as children become adolescents. Communities could also be an important source of informal social control, provided there is widespread disapproval of crime. Toby found this not to be the case in lower-class communities where he observed delinquency to be more common compared to the suburbs.

Toby's stake in conformity theory was put forth in response to claims made by social disorganization theorists Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay that structural factors such as high rates of poverty, transiency, and heterogeneity explained the variation in rates of delinquency across neighborhoods. Toby believed these structural characteristics to be insufficient because they did not explain why many juveniles (particularly females) residing in socially disorganized areas did not become delinquent. In an earlier study of delinquency rates across cities in New Jersey, Toby found that the rates of officially recorded delinquency were higher in areas with high rates of family disorganization (larger proportion of single-family households). Toby argued in his article “The Differential Impact of Family Disorganization” that “well-integrated” families helped insulate juveniles from the criminogenic influences of a neighborhood and/or peer group. The influence of family disorganization was different for boys and girls as well as for juveniles of different ages. Family disorganization appeared to be more relevant for understanding the delinquency of girls and juveniles between the ages of 7 and 15. While previous research had downplayed the significance of broken homes in explaining delinquency (e.g., Shaw and McKay), Toby demonstrated the importance of including such intervening variables in delinquency research.

Toby's concept of stake in conformity emulates control theory with the idea that individuals who have a stake in conformity are insulated from the enticements of illegal behavior. Further, Toby asserted that communities comprising large proportions of individuals with low stakes in conformity (unemployed, poor, less educated) will have higher rates of delinquency than communities with low proportions. Toby's theory offers not only an explanation of an individual's involvement in delinquency but of rates of delinquency as well. Toby's theory was influenced by the work of one of the most prominent sociologists of the 20th century, Talcott Parsons. Parsons was Toby's professor and mentor at Harvard University where Toby earned his Ph.D. in 1951.

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