Age-graded Theory Of Informal Social Control Research Articles

An Empirical Test of Age-Graded Informal Social Control Theory: New Correlates of Youth Deviance

This study examines several family structural variables that have a hypothesized effect on delinquency, substance abuse, and violence. We conducted a survey for potential correlates of Sampson and Laub’s age-graded informal social control theory variables within the Turkish context. Our large sample size (31,272), drawn from high school students in Istanbul, Turkey, allowed us to test the effects of family settings on youth deviance by using various statistical tests and programs. Our findings indicate that juveniles exposed to parental substance abuse are more likely to use illegal substances, commit a greater number of delinquent acts, and participate in more instances of violent behavior. Additionally, family social capital, residential mobility, religiosity, and the number of siblings were some other statistically significant correlates of delinquency.

Making it on the Outside: Towards an Integrated Control Theory for Understanding the Reintegration Process

Reintegration has garnered greater attention in criminology, as many releasees from prisons are being recycled back into criminal justice systems around the world. Despite this trend, the reintegration literature to date has been mainly descriptive and few studies have paid attention to the theoretical dynamics and social context surrounding reintegration. To address this gap, we suggest that the prominent debate, mainly found in American criminology, on crime causation between Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) General Theory of Crime (GTC) and Sampson and Laub's (1993) and Laub and Sampson's (2003) Age-Graded Theory of Informal Social Control (AGTISC) be used to advance this largely atheoretical literature. After showing that research exploring the effects of self-control and informal social control on reintegration remains largely uncharted territory in criminological theory, we propose an integrated control theory, in addition to some methodological considerations, for better understanding reintegration.

Human Agency and Explanations of Criminal Desistance: Arguments for a Rational Choice Theory

Extant theoretical work on desistance from crime has emphasized social processes such as involvement in adult social bonds or pro-social relationships, with very little attention given to individual subjective processes such as one’s identity. The desistance theories of Sampson and Laub and Giordano seem to have reached the point of consensual acceptance in the field. Theoretical work within the past 5 years, however, have begun to stress the role of identity and human agency in the desistance process including Paternoster and Bushway’s (2009) identity theory of desistance (ITD), which offers a rational choice perspective on how offenders quit crime. This paper provides a critical theoretical assessment of both the age-graded informal social control theory of desistance and the theory of cognitive and emotional transformation, illuminating the critical theoretical omissions and empirical inconsistencies in each. We suggest that the apparent consensus in the criminological literature regarding desistance theory may be premature and highlight the advantages provided by theories that emphasize the internal cognitive dimensions of change including the ITD.

Kriminologische Verlaufsforschung zu Jugendkriminalität

This paper presents a short overview of the developmental research of antisocial behavior in adolescence and young adulthood. We first discuss offending patterns based on official and self-reported data and their limitations and problems. Secondly, we discuss the idea of the ubiquity of juvenile delinquency and the frequent occurrence of desistance in the transition to adulthood. The cessation of criminal activities is also found by so called „chronic juvenile offenders“. We than discuss two important developmental theories of crime: the taxonomic theory of Moffitt and the age-graded informal social control theory of Sampson and Laub. Based on the qualitative desistance study of serious young offenders, Stelly and Thomas not only demonstrate the different pathways out of crime, the results also demonstrate the limitation of the available theories.