College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item SEX, CRIME, AND SELF-CONTROL: COMPARING OUTCOMES OF LOW SELF-CONTROL FOR HETEROSEXUAL AND GAY/BISEXUAL MEN(2022) Scocca, Jacob; Dugan, Laura; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Objective: The purpose of the current thesis is to further explore Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime by examining adult outcomes of low self-control in a heterosexual and gay/bisexual sample. It argues that self-control in these populations is differentially related to outcomes of violent crime and analogous behaviors, which contradicts the general nature of the theory. Methods: The current study uses self-reported measures in the Adolescent Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) for self-control (Wave 3) to examine outcomes of violent crime and risky sexual behavior (Wave 4). Risky sexual behaviors in this study are conceptualized as number of different sexual partners, sex without prophylactics, or sex with more than one person around the same time. Men are the primary focus of this thesis due to the presence of culturally and socially specific factors in the heterosexual and gay male community that could differentially affect the outcomes of interest. Hypothesis: I hypothesize that both the relationship between low self-control and violent crime and low self-control and risky sexual behavior will differ based on the sexual orientation of the respondent. To frame this hypothesis, I argue that the gay male subculture is more openly accepting of risky sexual behaviors, and therefore that this analogous behavior will be less related to self-control in gay populations. I also argue that heterosexual masculinity facilitates violent behavior/crime within heterosexual men, meaning that self-control plays a larger role in controlling urges in this group. Results: Differences in the association between self-control and risky sexual behaviors were found between heterosexual and gay/bisexual men indicating support for the hypothesis. Differences in the relationship between self-control and violent criminal activity in the two groups were not found in the tested samples. These findings provide evidence that Gottfredson & Hirschi's theory may not be generalizable for analogous behaviors in all populations, but that it still may hold for violent crime.Item Pathways to Turning Points: Exploring the Relationship between Self-Control and Thoughtfully Reflective Decision Making(2012) Pratt, Stephanie M.; Loughran, Thomas; McGloin, Jean; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The majority of empirical work on turning points has focused on if and how they facilitate desistance; comparatively little work has investigated the factors that facilitate or inhibit the likelihood of experiencing these turning points, however. This is disconcerting as extant literature has mostly found these life events to have a significant impact on steering individuals away from subsequent deviant behavior. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study investigates the relationship between self-control and thoughtfully reflective decision making (Paternoster and Pogarsky, 2009; Paternoster, Pogarsky, and Zimmerman, 2010) in the likelihood of entering into marriage and gainful activity. This research finds that self-control significantly predicts gainful activity as well as thoughtfully reflective decision making. The results, however, do not find self-control to be influential for marriage. Implications for theory and future research are also discussed.Item Can self-control change substantially over time?: Rethinking the nature and role of self-control in Gottfredson and Hirschi's general theory of crime(2011) Na, Chong Min; Paternoster, Raymond; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The primary goal of this study is to verify if the changing level of structural and situational `sensitivity' to costs and benefits associated with deviant behaviors (e.g., Hirschi (2004) and Gottfredson (2006)'s redefined self-control, Tittle, Ward, and Grasmick's (2004) "desire to exercise self-control," Wikström and Treiber's (2007) "situationally-based" self-control) is associated with the changing level of more general `ability' to measure costs and benefits within individuals (e.g., Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) trait-like self-control, Tittle, Ward, and Grasmick's (2004) "capacity for self-control," Wikström and Treiber's (2007) "executive capability"). More importantly, to better disentangle the causal mechanisms underlying stability and change in offending behaviors over time, This study examines how low self-control as one of the constituent elements of offending propensity changes over time in the general population and across different study groups using both a hierarchical linear model (HLM) and a second-order latent growth model (LGM). Then, structural equation modeling (SEM) is employed to examine the on-going processes of cumulative advantage and disadvantage by more explicitly testing the bidirectional relationship of key theoretical constructs (e.g., self-control vs. social control/bond) over time. In contrast to the Gottfredson and Hirschi's prediction, this study found meaningful differences in the growth pattern of self-control among individuals in the population in general and especially across different study groups. Interestingly, the changing level of social control/bond triggered by experimental conditions accounted for the between-group difference observed. The same pattern persists when different analytic techniques and model specifications are applied to test the same research hypotheses, which suggests that the results are not an artifact of measurement error, model specification, or statistical methods. Most of all, this study was able to better disentangle the `long-term' relationship between self- and social control variables, which is found to be more dynamic and bidirectional than previously hypothesized.Item The Link Between Impulsivity, Suicide Ideation, and Illegal Behavior in College Students(2011) Freeland, Rachel Miriam; Dugan, Laura; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi's general theory of crime posits that persons with low self-control are more likely to engage in criminal, as well as, analogous behaviors. This thesis attempts to explore the relationship between low self-control, as measured by impulsivity, illegal behavior, and suicide ideation, an analogous behavior, in a college student population. Data are taken from the College Life Study, a longitudinal study that examines the health behaviors of one cohort of first-year college students. Using multinomial logistic regression, the results indicate that the more impulsive students are also those who show signs of suicide ideation and illegal behavior or just illegal behavior without suicide ideation. However, when examining suicide ideation alone, there is not a statistically significant relationship with impulsivity. Thus, Gottfredson and Hirschi's theory is only partially supported by this thesis.