Travis Hirschi and Social Bonding Theory

“Social control theory focuses techniques and strategies that regulate human behavior and lead to conformity, or obedience to society’s rules…” state Alder, Laufer, and Meuller (2007) in their text Criminology and the Criminal justice system. There are two concepts that must be understood when examining social control theories, and social bonding theory. The first is that we must assume all human beings possess the ability to commit criminal acts, they are not necessarily eve, but at least neutral. The second is to understand the difference between the macro- and micro-sociological perspectives. In brief, the macro-sociological perspective studies the formal systems for the control of groups. In the case of studying deviance, social control theories lend themselves to the micro-sociological perspective in that they often times apply to individuals as well as groups and have a tendency to explore an individual’s internal control system.

Hirschi’s work, social bonding theory, exists, for the most part, as a summation of his social control theory predecessors. The premise that lays at the root his theory is that all individuals are bonded to society and that when the bond is weak the individual becomes free to deviate. Hirschi states there are four aspects of the bond, and their relationship between each other, that affect our connection to society:

-Attachment to conventional others: Our attachment to others within a society can keep us from deviating for several reasons. In the case of delinquency, Hirschi proposes three forms of attachment, parents, schools, and peers. Hirschi quotes Durkheim in relation to this aspect, “we are moral beings to the extent we are social beings.”

-Commitment to conventional goals or activities: There are three ways of expressing commitment to conventional goals, vocational aspirations, educational aspirations, and educational expectations. Essentially, we invest in our careers and education and conform as we do not believe deviating is worth sacrificing the investment we have made into these aspirations and expectations.

-Involvement in conventional activities: There is an inverse correlation between the amount of time an individual spends partaking in conventional activities and the amount of time they have to deviate. The more time you spend partaking in conventional activities, the less time you have to deviate.

-Belief in conventional values: An individual must believe that the common value system of a society is one of moral validity. Once that is attained, the individual will consent to them. If an individual does not agree with the rules derived from the values of a society, he/she is not very likely to consent to them.

Though there are many potential combinations for the interaction between the different bonds, Hirschi only goes into detail about three:

-Attachment-Commitment: If an individual has a strong attachment to an individual or group that does not share in the traditional commitment to conventional goals, he/she will also not share in that commitment.

-Commitment-Involvement: If an individual is committed to conventional goals, he/she will partake in more conventional activities.

-Attachment-Belief: An individual with a strong attachment to another individual is likely to adopt the beliefs of that individual.

This is quite a bit for today, so I’m going to end it here. I may come back to Hirschi in the near future though. Please, if you feel you want to know more about Hirschi in the near future, please feel free to contact me.

LH

All information in this post is from:

Hanlon, Leo. (2012) “An Overview of Travis Hirschi’s Social Bonding Theory and Introduction to its Applications”.