Identify the four elements of social bond according to Travis Hirschi’s theory. Provide examples of each type of bond. Finally, consider the policy implications of this theory—how might society work to strengthen each of the four bonds?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Attachment refers to a bond to others (such as family and peers) and important institutions (such as churches and schools). Weak attachment to parents and family may impair personality development, while poor relationships with the school are viewed as particularly instrumental in delinquency. Commitment involves the degree to which an individual maintains a vested interest in the social and economic system. If an individual has much to lose in terms of status, job, and community standing, he or she is less likely to violate the law. Adults, for instance, have many more such commitments than juveniles do. Involvement entails engagement in legitimate social and recreational activities that either leaves too little time to get into trouble or binds one’s status to yet other important groups whose esteem one wishes to maintain. Finally, belief in the conventional norms and value system and the law acts as a bond to society. Like Reckless’s containment theory and Matza’s delinquency and drift, Hirschi’s social bond theory combines elements of determinism and free will; individual choice still enters the equation.