SELF-CONTROL, SOCIAL-CONTROL AND EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY - TOWARDS ANINTEGRATED PERSPECTIVE ON CRIME

A General Theory of Crime proposed by Gottfredson and Hirschi identifi es low self control as a critical condition for individual choices ass ociated with delinquency. The disposition towards low self control ari ses from failures in supervision, discipline, and informal control in the family during the child's first eight years of life. This approach to control theory is complemented by the life cycle theory explored b y Sampson and Laub, particularly in their stress on the process of inf ormal social control and the structures of social capital, as these co ntribute to desistance among life long offenders. Hagan's power-contro l theory tackles the significant contribution to crime of gender socia lization and the division of labour in child supervision. The revised control perspective still suffers from significant anomalies which can not be explained within a classical framework. It is suggested that an examination of distal explanations of violence derived by Daly and Wi lson from an evolutionary view provides clues to these anomalies. This essay outlines the relative strengths of these approaches and suggest s the foundations for an integrated theoretical synthesis.