Self-Control, Social Consequences, and Criminal Behavior: Street Youth and the General Theory of Crime

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Abstract
Using a sample of 400 homeless street youth, this article examines the role that self-control plays in the generation of crime and drug use as well as its link to negative social consequences. It also explores if these social consequences are themselves related to crime as predicted in strain and differential association theory, or if their impact is eliminated by the presence of low self-control. The results reveal that low self-control predicts a range of criminal behaviors as well as drug use. Consistent with the general theory, low self-control influences the association with deviant peers, the adoption of deviant values, length of unemployment, and length of homelessness. However, the results reveal that a number of social consequences; including deviant peers, deviant values, length of homelessness, relative deprivation, and monetary dis-satisfaction; have an effect on criminal behavior and drug use controlling for self-control lending support to other theoretical perspectives. Results are discussed in terms of developing the general theory by incorporating other perspectives.