ABSTRACT
Social control theory and its derivatives are the focus of Chapter 7. The chapter begins reviewing the work of Edward A. Ross who wrote one of the first books on social control. The chapter also provides a summary of Durkheim’s foundational work on social control theory. Social control perspectives from the 1950s are also reviewed. Following this early work, Travis Hirschi’s “Causes of Delinquency” is reviewed and its race-neutral approach to explaining crime is discussed. The General Theory of Crime perspective is then reviewed. The literature related to testing the race neutrality of the theory is considered. The chapter closes with a review of race and life-course criminology and conservative criminology.
