PERSONAL CAPITAL AND SOCIAL-CONTROL - THE DETERRENCE IMPLICATIONS OF A THEORY OF INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES IN CRIMINAL OFFENDING

A large and growing literature links stable individual differences est ablished early in life to deviant behavior through the life course. Th is literature challenges basic premises of modern sociological and eco nomic theories of deviance that emphasize explanatory factors that are more proximate in time and external to the individual. In this paper we present and test a theory designed to link rational choice and soci al control theories with two leading examples of theories that emphasi ze stable individual differences (Wilson and Herrnstein, 1985; Gottfre dson and Hirschi, 1990). Based on appeals to the economic theory of in vestment, we argue that individuals who are more present oriented and self-centered invest less in social bonds and therefore are less deter red from committing crime by the possibility of damage to such bonds. Thus, our theory, which builds from key constructs of the Gottfredson- Hirschi and Wilson-Herrnstein theories, departs from those theories wi th the contention that social control does matter.