UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Social Learning, Social Control, and Strain Theories: A Formalization of Micro-level Criminological Theories Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/20p8s027 Author Proctor, Kristopher Ryan Publication Date 2010 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Social Learning, Social Control, and Strain Theories: A Formalization of Micro-level Criminological Theories A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology by Kristopher Ryan Proctor August 2010 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Austin Turk, Chairperson Dr. Jonathan H. Turner Dr. Kirk Williams i Copyright by Kristopher Ryan Proctor 2010 ii The Dissertation of Kristopher Ryan Proctor is approved: ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside iii ACKNOWELDGEMENTS This dissertation represents the culmination of years of training, and I can not claim sole responsibibility for its production or completion. I would like to thank the members of my disseration committee - Austin Turk, Jonathan Turner, and Kirk Williams - for all their invaluable comments and advice during the dissertation process. I would also like to acknowledge Steven Brint, Robert Hanneman, Peter Burke, Robert Nash Parker, and Jan Stets for their mentorship during my tenure as a graduate student at UCR. Without the infl uences of all these faculty members, this dissertation would not have been possible. iv DEDICATIONS This dissertation is dedicated to Catherine Rippergerger and my parents. I would like to thank Catherine for her love and support throughout all of graduate school and all of our zany adventures. I would like to thank my parents, Jerry and Elizabeth Proctor, for bringing me into this world and supporting me at each step on the seemingly endless stair- way to my doctorate. v ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Social Learning, Social Control, and Strain Theories: A Formalization of Micro-level Criminological Theories by Kristopher Ryan Proctor Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Sociology University of California, Riverside, August 2010 Dr. Austin T. Turk, Chairperson This dissertation proposes theoretical formalization as a way of enhancing theory devel- opment within criminology. Differential association, social learning, social control, and general strain theories are formalized in order to identify assumptions of human nature, key theoretical concepts, theoretical knowledge claims, and scope conditions. The result- ing formalization allows greater comparability between theories in terms of explanatory power, and additionally provides insights into integration and elaboration as forms of theory development. vi Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction……........………………………………………………….…………1 The Integration/Elaboration Debate.....................................................................2 Sociological Theory Formalization........................................................................4 Proposed Theoretical Method................................................................................7 Proposed Formalization of Criminological Theory...........................................10 Theory Evaluation.................................................................................................13 Conclusion..............................................................................................................16 Chapter 2 Differential Association Theory………........…………………………….……..18 Theoretical Overview............................................................................................19 Assumptions of Human Nature............................................................................20 Theoretical Restatement.......................................................................................26 Scope Conditions...................................................................................................35 Conclusion..............................................................................................................37 Theoretical Restatement.......................................................................................38 Chapter 3 Social Learning Theory………..……........……………………………………..41 Assumptions of Human Nature...........................................................................42 Theoretical Formalization....................................................................................45 vii Scope Conditions...................................................................................................58 Conclusion..............................................................................................................59 Theoretical Restatment........................................................................................60 Chapter 4 Social Control Theory…………........……………………………….………..…63 Assumptions of Human Nature...........................................................................64 Theoretical Formalization....................................................................................66 Scope Conditions...................................................................................................75 Conclusion..............................................................................................................77 Theoretical Restatment........................................................................................78 Chapter 5 General Strain Theory………........…………………………………….……….81 Assumptions of Human Nature...........................................................................82 Theoretical Formalization....................................................................................87 Theoretical Ambiguities and Tautologies...........................................................96 Integrative Tautologies.......................................................................................103 Scope Conditions.................................................................................................107 Conclusion............................................................................................................108 Theoretical Restatment.......................................................................................110 viii Chapter 6 Theory Evaluation……...................................……………………….……..….113 Human Nature and Scope Conditions...............................................................113 Explanan and Explanatory Power.....................................................................126 Theoretical Explanandum..................................................................................133 Conclusion...........................................................................................................135 Chapter 7: Conclusion…………….......………………………………….…………...138 References…………………………………………………………………..………….150 ix Figures Figure 1.1: Cohen’s Theoretical Model................................................................8 Figure 2.1: Differential Association Theory.......................................................27 Figure 3.1: Parsimonious Social Learning Theory Model................................46 Figure 3.2: Detailed Social Learning Theory Model.........................................56 Figure 4.1: Social Contol Theoretical Model.....................................................67 Figure 4.2: Generalized Social Contol Theoretical Model ..............................74 Figure 5.1: General Strain Theory......................................................................88 Figure 5.2: Conceptual Overlap Among General Strain Theory Concepts.............................................................................................97 Figure 5.3: Conceptual Overlap Between General Strain Theory Concepts and Social Control and Social Learning Theory Concepts...............................................................................102 x Tables Table 6.1: Scope Conditions of Formalized Criminological Theories............118 Table 6.2: Summary of Explanan of Formalized Theories.............................127 Table 6.3: Summary of Explananda of Formalized Theories.........................132 xi Chapter 1 Introduction The late 1970s and the entire 1980s was an era of great theoretical concern for criminologists. With a perceived failure of criminological theory to account for suffi cient variation in crime, Elliot and his colleagues (1979) proposed an integration of learning, control, and strain theories in order to better explain delinquency. Following this integra- tive effort, criminologists began to seriously debate the nature of theory development in criminology. While many supported integrative efforts (e.g., Bernard 1989, 2001; Ber- nard and Snipes 1996; Elliot, Ageton, and Canter 1979; Short 1979, 1985), others argued that theoretical integration was a poor mode of theory development because integrated theories would inevitably lack logical consistency since they tended to have contradic- tory assumptions (e.g., Hirschi 1979, 1989; Liska, Krohn, and Messner 1989; Thornberry 1989). The purpose of this dissertation will be to promote a yet untapped method of al- lowing for cumulative theory development in criminology.