Cmy3701 Essay

1106 Words5 Pages
1) introduction Hirsch’s social bonding theory states that an individual’s behaviour especially criminal or delinquent behaviour is directly linked to how strong or weak of a bond the individual has to society. 2. Definition of Key Concepts 2.1 Social Bonding: Social bond is the degree to which an individual is integrated into the society 2.2 Delinquent: (typically of a young person) tending to commit crime, particularly minor crime. 2.3Prosocial: Prosocial behaviour, or "voluntary behaviour intended to benefit another", is a social behaviour that "benefit[s] other people or society as a whole," "such as helping, sharing, donating, co-operating, and volunteering 2.4Cultural Conflict: Cultural conflict is a type of conflict that occurs when different cultural values and beliefs clash. It has been used to explain violence and crime (Colman 2009:223,498) The four elements of the Social Bonding theory 3. Attachment 3.1.1 Attachment according to Hirschi (Hirschi 1969:58) is the degree of attachment the individual forms with others with uttermost importance the person’s parents and school. As the prosocial institutions can deter criminal behaviour in an individual. 3.1.2 Let us take an example of Seung Cho who killed 27 students at Virginia Tech as an example to explain attachment. He was subject to teasing at school which according to the social bonding theory is an important institution for an individual to attach, to and then conform to the conventional rules of society. In Cho’s case he might have suffered from mental illness nevertheless in this case pupils at school did tease and taunt him in so doing he was further isolated and became more detached from society and the probability of delinquent behaviour increased . (Schmalleger 1996:261) Hirschi indicates that a person who feels hostile can become very aggressive like in Cho’s case.
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