CONTROL THEORIES

Travis Hirschi has had an important influence on criminology, first authoring Causes of Delinquency in 1969 and then A General Theory of Crime in 1990 with Michael Gottfredson. This question asks you to trace Hirschi's work, showing how he demarcated the distinctive nature of control theories and then offered two major versions of control perspectives.
In particular, your answer should address the following issues:

1. According to Hirschi, define what makes a perspective a control theory. For example, what is its distinctive premise about human nature? What question does the theory ask? How does control theory differ fundamentally from the assumptions underlying its two major competitors: differential association/social learning theory and strain theory.

2. Discuss Hirschi's social bond theory. What is the theory? Discuss each social bond, including how each bond acts as a control.

3. Then, discuss Gottfredson and Hirschi's self-control theory. How is it a control theory? What is low self-control and what is the source of low self control? Also, how did Hirschi's self-control theory represents a fundamental critique of his earlier social bond theory?