The Social Bond Theory

Belief is the idea that if an individual is committed to a society that upholds good virtue and morals, then that individual will most likely not engage in deviant behavior. If the individual believes that murder is wrong, then that individual will not commit murder due to his/her belief.

Travis Hirschi developed the social control theory in 1969. He proclaimed that the primary reason for the influence delinquency is the lack of social bonds. The social bond theory is composed of four components: attachment, commitment. involvement, and belief. Individuals who do not have these components or who have very weak bonds are prone to delinquency. The first part of Hirschi’s theory is the attachment theory. The attachment theory focuses on a person’s emotional assurance and connection with certain individuals and groups, it also involves an individual’s sensitivity and ability to sympathize with others. Since Harris and Klebold were anti-social and often bullied they had poor relationships with friends or their highs school, or their family leaving them out casted and feeling alone. Harris and Klebold were emotionally committed to one another, are invested in one another spend a great deal of time interacting with one another and they created an attachment to one

Hirschi’s social bond theory is made up of four basic elements; attachment, commitment, involvement and belief. The element of attachment has to do with one’s involvement in society, and the bonds they form with others. Social bond theory is based on the idea that deviancy occurs in an individual when social connections are weak or non-existent, the element of attachment has to do with the bonds one forms with individuals or institutions. Attachment acts as an indirect control factor, as attachment determines one’s status in society, which in turn determines how much social capital one possesses. Attachment is largely influenced by one’s parents, interpreted as children “inheriting” social capital from their parents based on the level of

The real intellectual roots of social bond theory date back several centuries. However, much interest among crime researchers began during the middle of the 20th century with significant work of Travis Hirschi. After that,

Attachment is the emotional bond between humans, which is based on our relationship with a parent or early caregiver during the years of childhood. There are four different attachment styles – secure, preoccupied, dismissive, and fearful – each describing a different way in which individuals interact with others, approach social and romantic relationships, and deal with life.

In 1969, social control theory was developed by Travis Hirschi. This theory has also been known to be called the social bond theory – when

Attachment is the connection that people have with their family, friends, and community. From these attachments respect for authority and the acceptance of social norms. This also leads to the development of a social conscious, which otherwise develops independent of society and the community, resulting in antisocial traits and behaviors. Commitment describes efforts one must go through, and the time and energy that it takes to fulfill future needs and desires. A lack of commitment to conventional society creates a situation in which criminality and criminal behavior may take place. Similarly, a strong commitment to conventional society encourages people to seek out legitimate means of meeting their future desires. Involvement describes activities that encourage community ties and discourage illegal and unconventional behaviors. Lastly, belief states that people there are common social beliefs that are shared among those of similar communities (yahoo).

Attachment refers to the degree to which an individual is close to non-deviant others, including, family members, friends and peers. One’s willingness to conforming to norms and expectations is dependent on how attached they are to others. This element goes on to extends

Individuals with strong and stable attachments to others within society, such as family, friends and community institutions are presumed to be less likely to violate social norms, because such behaviour would distress these respective attachments (Reginald et al, 1995). Second, is commitment, meaning having an individual investment in social activities. For example, an individual who has invested time, energy and resources into conforming to social norms, such as educational and career goals, is less likely to become involved in a gang (Goodwill 2009). In particular, since they have invested heavily in conforming these individuals have more to lose than those who have not invested in their future in a conforming fashion. (Reginald et al, 1995). Third, is involvement, which Hirschi utilized in order to illustrate that when large amounts of structured time are invested in socially approved activities, such as sports or work, the time for available deviance is drastically reduced (Reginald et al, 1995). Specifically, active engagement in conventional endeavors acts as a powerful protective factor against delinquency (Huebner and Betts, 2002). Hirschi’s final element of social bonding is belief. This pertains to an actor’s level of belief in the moral validity of shared social values and norms (Reginald et al, 1995). When an individual strongly believes in the conventional norms they are less likely to deviate from

The two theories I have decided to merge are Agnew’s General Strain Theory and Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory. I picked General Strain Theory because it does a good job at discussing some of the things that can trigger the release of a person’s negative emotions which in turn may lead to deviant behavior. I also decided to write about Social Bond Theory because it describes some of the factors that keep people from committing crime. Both of the theories have strengths and weaknesses individually, but when merged they help fill in each other’s gaps. (Agnew, 2011; Hirschi, 2011) +1 (888) 295-7904

Social bond theory was initially developed by Hirschi in 1969. The basis of this theory is that criminal behaviour occurs when social bonds are broken. Hirschi (1969) explains how there are four key factors of a social bond and the strain on these factors motivates deviant behaviour. By applying Hirschi's social bond theory to prison can begin to explain why the prison experience may increase later reoffending. Nagin et al (2009) furthers this explaining how prison may have negative effects on offender through reducing exposure of positive pro social bonds and increasing the exposure of negative influences.

However, they still possess similar characteristics. For instance, policy implications of the two theories are found to overlap. One implication of social bonding theory is strengthening attachment and commitment should be combined with positive reinforcement, modeling, and learning prosocial attitudes and skills in school and family, which shows how social bonding theory overlaps with social learning theory by using the aspects of reinforcement and learning models and attitudes in conjunction with bonds. Social learning theory is also seen to lend support to social bonding theory by suggesting that the type of attachment matters; if a certain type of attachment is strong, there is more of a chance of someone imitating what he or she sees. Therefore, another implication is that by developing strong social bonds with family and schools during childhood, prepares an individual to learn prosocial skills, attitudes, and behaviors as well as helps that individual to avoid learning delinquent behaviors later on in life; this also highlights how the two theories overlap and are related. Moreover, to further illustrate, policy implications can be seen to be implemented in preventive and rehabilitative programs that use variables to positively change behavior such as curfews, after-school activities and programs, parenting classes, job placement programs, peer counseling and gang interventions. The idea behind some of these

There are three theories that all describe the reasons why child abuse and neglect lead to juvenile delinquency. This first of these theories is the social bonding theory which states that the weaker the bond between parent and child, the more likely the child is to become delinquent as stated by Ronald Akers. A parent’s role in an adolescent’s life is to foster a social

Social bond theory shows an interesting way to look at the social problems, such as crime, that surround the world we live in. The theory primarily focuses on the peers and peer groups of individuals. The four basic elements that the theory focus on are attachment, commitment, involvement in activities including both criminal and noncriminal, and also the the common values that are giving to an individuals groups and subgroups. The element of attachment can be described as the values or the norms that someone has in their society. Attachment is most important with the figures that have a strong influence over a person 's life such as parental figures. Friends at school can also be important people related to attachment. Commitment is different than attachment in that it focuses on how much a person is committed to abiding by legal behavior. As a child we are hopefully taught was is the right thing

Social and personal Control, by Reiss suggest that deviant behavior is based on the bond