On the association among self-control, crime, and analogous behaviors

In a paper previously published in Criminology (Paternoster and Brame, 1998 ), we used darn from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development to inves tigate the association between criminal activity and a set of so-called "an alogous behaviors" (i.e., excessive drinking, smoking, gambling, involvemen t in accidents, etc.). Our reading of Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) self -control theory led us to hypothesize that both of these outcomes should de pend on self-control. It seemed to us that the implication of this position is that self-control should explain ally association that exists between i nvolvement in criminal activity and involvement in analogous behaviors. Our analysis suggested that the association between criminal activity and anal ogous behaviors persisted even after conditioning on our measure of self-co ntrol. We drew the qualified conclusion that this result constitutes negati ve evidence for Gottfredson and Hirschi's self-control theory. In this pape r we reexamine the analytic framework on which we relied in our earlier wor k.