Constraint

Abstract

It may be said that large quantities of criminological theory is control theory of one kind or another. In Chicago-School theory, for example, various kinds of solidarity operate as social controls. In Mertonian theory, something akin to reference groups operate as social controls. Indeed any theory that posits a desire for conformity uses the notion of control in that such a desire forms the basis of control. Hence any theory that speaks of deviance is, at base, a control theory. Even in Messner and Rosenfeld (2007) or Currie (1997), for example, the market is criminogenic because its control of desires shifts the values of society away from human values towards the monetary values of the powerful: our desire for material wealth undermines the efficacy of certain controls on our behaviour. Neo-classical and Rational-choice theories may be seen as control theories in that they suggest that our decision-making can be controlled by situational interventions. Control theories are frequently seen to be problematic because they tend to conceive of controls in a very narrow way, frequently in line with a ‘political’ or ideological agenda on the part of the theorist (see Gluek ' Gluek 1950 for example). Furthermore, they are often defined tautologically.