ABSTRACT
A low “ability to exercise self-control” means in particular that a person is acting on short-term easy benefits and ignores long-term negative consequences. A hypothesis of self-control theory (SCT) is that low self-control leads to criminal conduct. However, it is also claimed that short-term benefits can be received with obedient behavior, and negative consequences can be avoided. In some contributions to the theory it is granted that situational conditions might prevent crime, even if there is low self-control. It is thus not clear what the theory asserts. It is only clear that the central variable is self-control which will be discussed. In terms of RCT, short-term benefits and long-term negative consequences are very specific kinds of incentives. An implication of RCT is that these incentives lead to crime only if crime and not conformity is instrumental for getting or avoiding those consequences. This clearly contradicts SCT. Another deficiency of SCT is that, as research shows, other important consequences of crime or obedient behavior are not systematically explored. There are several other modifications of SCT that follow from RCT. In a final section we present a study in which the self-control variable becomes statistically insignificant in multivariate analyses when rational choice variables are included (Tibbetts and Myers 1999).
