ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the problems of failed socialization dramatically illustrated in the case of Robbie Hawkins. It looks at the effects of inadequate parental socialization by focusing on social control theory. The chapter examines the negative effects of labeling by social control agents and agencies of criminal justice. It deals with the effect that society's agents of social control, such as police, schoolteachers, social workers, and probation officers, have on creating crime and criminals. Thus, social control theory reverses the usual explanation of crime by viewing criminal behavior as less explainable in the presence of something than in the absence of something. Most social control theories assume that socialization into convention occurs from an early age but something breaks or weakens the bonds to convention, freeing a person to deviate. This type of control theory can be called broken-bond theory. A number of studies have found some support for John Braithwaite's theory and the detrimental effects of stigmatization.
