A Cross-Cultural Verification of a Social Control Theory

The most discussed social control theory of crime has been put forth by Travis Hirschi. In this paper we are interested in examining the relationship between the elements of the bond and self-reported delinquent behavior. In methodology, the paper is a replication of Hirschi's analysis on a random sample of French speaking adolescents of Montreal.

We were able to replicate Hirschi's findings on commitment, belief, and involvement; but there were some differences concerning attachment. There seems to be a cultural difference in the importance of the attachment to school: it is much less significant in the French sample.