Structure and control: Reconsidering Hirschi's concept of commitment

Hirschi's concept of commitment confuses the definition and the explanation of conformity, as part of a more general confusion between conformity and legality. The result is tautology—an explanation that merely restates a definition. Commitment is properly conceived as an antecedent variable that measures the role of social structure in the origin of delinquency. As such, it explains legal actions but not conforming actions.