ABSTRACT
This chapter examines after the empirical examination of attachment, the other three elements of Hirschi's Social Control Theory - commitment, involvement and belief. It examines the concept of commitment and defines as an individual's social investments in conventional behaviour. The chapter discusses the Involvement, which is the behavioural counterpart of commitment. In the process of our social living, most of us make certain social and material investments in conventional behaviour. Understood as social and material investments in conventional behaviour the relevance of commitment in controlling crime/deviance comes into prominence when one feels temptation to deviate. Involvement in the kind of behaviour that was mentioned in the examples may not have any consequences for the future prospects of an ordinary citizen. Belief refers to an individual's sense of the 'moral validity' or 'legitimacy' of the conventional norms and rules of society - the extent to which individuals feel moral obligation to obey the rules of society.
