ABSTRACT
This chapter examines attachments to parents, teachers, and peers. There are many elements of the bond to the parent, all of which may not be equally important in the control of delinquent behavior. Although the chapter devotes much of the analysis to factors affecting attachment, the burden of the argument rests on the relations between the various attachments and delinquency. Attachment may easily be seen as variable over persons and over time for the same person. The chapter begins by assuming that all "others" are conventional and only later investigate the effects of attachment to persons not conforming to the conventional model. Predictions about the effects of peer attachments hinge on the assumed conventionality or nonconventionality of peers. Control theory assumes that the bond of affection for conventional persons is a major deterrent to crime.
