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Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice pp 2998–3010Cite as

Measurement of Self-Control

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Overview

Gottfredson and Hirschi’s concept of self-control is one criminological construct that has sparked a large amount of theoretical and empirical debate among criminologists. The interest in measuring self-control and understanding the psychometric properties of self-control measures is perhaps due to the explanatory power that Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) attribute to self-control and the theoretical propositions they make regarding this construct. It is therefore surprising that little effort has been made to systematically examine and compile the state of criminological research on the measurement of self-control. This entry is designed to fill this void by providing a review of several issues related to the measurement of self-control and empirical studies on self-control measurement.

This review will accomplish several tasks. First, conceptual and operational definitions of self-control will be discussed. In doing so, this entry highlights the disagreements on whether the...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law, University of Florida, 3219 Turlington Hall, 117330, Gainesville, FL, 32611-7330, USA

    Chris L. Gibson

Authors
  1. Chris L. Gibson
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Correspondence to Chris L. Gibson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gerben Bruinsma

  2. VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gerben Bruinsma

  3. Department of Criminology, Law and Society, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    David Weisburd

  4. Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel

    David Weisburd

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Gibson, C.L. (2014). Measurement of Self-Control. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_359

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_359

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5689-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5690-2

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

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