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Bonds of Attachment
Functionalist sociologist Travis Hirschi was interested not so much in why people commit crimes but why most people (most of the time) do not. His conclusion was that what stopped most of us from committing crimes were the "bonds of attachment" we have to society. How much individuals have invested in society and what they have to lose has a profound effect on whether they would consider criminal responses to various social situations.
Hirschi's bonds of attachment are:
- Attachment (the extent we care about what others think of us)
- Commitment (what we have to lose)
- Involvement (level of integration in our community)
- Belief (how important we consider upholding the norms and values of society).
There is some clear overlap between these four "bonds" and while they are intended to explain compliance and non-criminality, functionalists would maintain that their absence explained criminal behaviour.
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Hirschi - Functionalist Theories of Crime & Deviance
Topic Videos
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Hirschi: Bonds of Attachment (1969)
Study Notes