Explain the background assumption of human nature upon which control theories rely. How does this background assumption shape the scope of control theories?
What will be an ideal response?
Answer:
• Assume that the desire to commit crime is natural to all human beings
• Aims to explain why people resist criminal temptation
• Crime is simply a consequence of the rational and self-interested nature with which everyone is born.
• Human self-interested nature means that we consider costs and benefits as they relate specifically to our own pleasure.
• Not everyone is evil or bad, but control theory assumes that we are capable of obeying societal rules.
• We are amoral and both good and bad actions can ultimately be traced to personal self-interest.
• Anyone has potential to be tempted by crime but not everyone does and control theories aim to answer: "Why do some people not commit crime when it would be to their own advantage"?
• General agreement in the world exists about what constitutes socially unacceptable behavior
• People will act in their self-interest and that sometimes crime will be in one's self-interest to commit.
• Self-control theory focuses almost entirely on an acquired fear of long-term consequences for criminal actions.
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