Family and Delinquency

Theories

There are numerous theories that focus on families as central to explaining crime. Control theories hold that delinquency results from inadequate controls instilled in a person by society. Families play a vital role in instilling values and norms acceptable by the social order. Travis Hirschi's social control theory explains the importance of establishing secure connections to conventional social institutions to decrease delinquency. Self-control theory, developed by Michael Gottfredson and Hirschi, contends that primary caregivers must instill adequate amounts of self-control in children prior to a given developmental age because lack of self-control leads to delinquency. Another class of theories consists of learning theories, which argue that delinquency is learned in interactions with close others, like family members, similar to how other learning occurs. In addition to these direct connections, families are indirectly implicated in macro-level theories that examine the neighborhood and economic strain as causes of delinquency. For youth, these important factors are generally determined by familial circumstance.

Research