Capacity for Self-Control Article Review
Purpose of the Article
The article writer’s purpose in writing this article was to pinpoint and bring out a theoretical peculiarity between capability for self-control and the desire of someone to exercise it. Using crime to measure the level of self-control, the writer points out that desires for one to do crime is in every person but the level of one doing it depends with the level of control he puts. Those with high self-control will figure out at its disastrous consequences and not do it. Those with low self-control may be aware of the repercussions but will go ahead to misbehave. There are two issues coming out which are self-control ability and self-control desire which are different but related. The self-control ability depends on the self-control desire whereby with a high desire, ability has less influence and vice versa. Therefore the conclusion is that self-control ability is an influence on misbehavior and not the cause of misbehavior.
Moreover, the writer puts it clear that self-control ability is a moderately good forecaster of criminal or and, a deviant behavior. There is a cumulative and interactive relationship between individuals with both self-control ability and self-control desire to have misbehavior. Thus it is important that both be factors in for any prediction and prediction on crime and deviance. Lastly, writer point out that Self-learning, rational arguments and social bonding have an impact on people desires to apply self-restraint.
Research Questions
- Does self-control theory address issues on the urge to do crime and deviance?
- How is self -control relative to other theoretical variables in predicting crime/deviance?
- Is there a relationship between the self-control ability and self-control desire?
Data collection, Methodology and Sampling
The data used was collected during the 16th annual Oklahoma City Survey with those interviewed being of age 18 and above. The author conducted 350 interviews which were face to face. Of these individuals who were interviewed, 40% of those who completed the interview were those targeted from the household and the remaining was a random substitutions. The percentage of men was 44% with the whites took a 80% of those interviewed. The survey also included drinkers, smokers and those who fail to use seat belts with their percentage being 17, 28, and 38 respectively.
The limitations of this article
The survey was done at a single locality which is within a city and cannot be used to justify the same behavior in other areas. There are other factors which could have been factored in i.e the level of crime in the area, economic stability of the region, the law of a state or country should have been factored in. The fact that only 40% of the individuals of those who were supposed to be interviewed were successful, the rest whose input wasn’t successful put the research could have a negative impact on the results.
Lastly, interviewed individuals could be intimidated by a face to face interview as most questions were asked were directly involved in breaking the law. This may make some to not take the interview while others my lie about some questions because of embarrassment. I could recommend the research to target also those who are are ex-convicts and also the prison convict to understand the self-control desires and ability in the crime that they did.
References List
Charles , R. T., David, A. W., & Harold, G. G. (2004). Capacity for Self-Control and Individuals’ Interest. Journal of Quantitative Criminology.
