Michael R Gottfredson
Biographic Data
| ID | 99240 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael R Gottfredson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael R |
| FAMILY NAME | Gottfredson |
| SIGNATURE | GOTTFREDSON M R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Arizona |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5311-0751 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 50 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 780 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 48 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1974 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Intimate Partner Violence, Femicide, and General Theories: Issues for Research and Policy From the View of Modern Control Theory
Intimate partner violence (IPV), including intimate partner homicide (IPH) and femicide, raises issues for general theories of crime, such as control and opportunity theories, that see close relationships among friends and family as barriers to interpersonal crimes. Crime-specific studies of both correlates and trends in IPV, including recent interrupted trend studies that examine the effects of COVID restrictions, often test opportunity theories…
Modern Control Theory and the Limits of Criminal Justice
Modern Control Theory and the Limits of Criminal Justice updates and extends the authors’ classic general theory of crime (sometimes referred to as “self-control theory”). In Part I, contemporary evidence about the theory is summarized. Research from criminology, psychology, economics, education, and public health substantially supports the lifelong influence of self control as a significant cause of problem behaviors, including delinquency and c…
Self‐Control Theory of Crime
Self‐control is a concept used by sociologists to explain differences among people in the frequency of engaging in a wide variety of acts, including crime and delinquency, that cause harm to others. It is defined as the tendency to avoid acts whose long term costs exceed their momentary advantages
The Generality of Deviance
Control Theories of Crime and Delinquency: Advances in Criminological Theory
For the past twenty to thirty years, control theories of crime have been at the center of theoretical development in criminology. Key to the control theory perspective is the notion that crime is an inherently individual act, and its explanation requires that we focus on the characteristics of individuals who commit crimes. Consequently, control theory focuses on such issues as self-control and social control. The contributions to this volume exp…
Policy Implications About Properties of Arrest Risk Across Populations of Provisional Employees With and Without a Criminal Record
Scholarship in the Public Interest: C. Ronald Huff and the August Vollmer Award
Critiquing the Critics: The Authors Respond
Self‐Control Theory
Self‐control is a concept used by sociologists to explain differences among people in the frequency of engaging in a wide variety of acts that cause harm to others (Gottfredson & Hirschi 1990). It is defined as the tendency to avoid acts whose long‐term costs exceed their momentary advantages. The costs include penalties from institutions such as schools and the criminal justice system, the loss of affection from family and friends, loss of jobs …
Offender Classifications and Treatment Effects in Developmental Criminology: A Propensity/ Event Consideration
Developmental criminology has raised the prospect that empirical classifications of offenders based on variations in the age of offending will assist in the prediction of and explanation for crime and delinquency. Additionally, developmental criminology suggests that events late in the life course may alter offending propensities in significant ways. Recent empirical works provide compelling evidence about these claims and provide support for gen…
In Defense of Self-Control
In the 10 years since its publication in A General Theory of Crime, the authors' self-control theory has been the focus of considerable research and critical assessment. This article responds to questions about the theory that have attracted the most thoughtful attention in the serious literature of the field
Personal Liberty and Community Safety: Pretrial Release in the Criminal Court
In this enlightening study, the authors implement a unique research approach to offer a greater understanding of policy reform of pretrial release and detention practices in the criminal courts in Boston, Miami, and Phoenix
National crime control policies
The Generality of Deviance
The Generality of Deviance
Commentary: Testing the General Theory of Crime
Confronting Drunk Driving: Social Policy for Saving Lives
The author of this book argues that drunk driving is more than just a criminal issue. He offers a practical approach to the problem of drunk driving, one that combines criminal deterence with other efforts to reduce the number of deaths caused by drivers under the influence of alcohol
A General Theory of Crime
A General Theory of Crime
By articulating a general theory of crime and related behavior, the authors present a new and comprehensive statement of what the criminological enterprise should be about. They argue that prevalent academic criminology—whether sociological, psychological, biological, or economic—has been unable to provide believable explanations of criminal behavior. The long-discarded classical tradition in criminology was based on choice and free will, and saw…
Substantive Positivism and the Idea of Crime
Efforts to construct theories of crime consistent with a priori principles typically prove unsatisfactory. Awareness of this fact led the early positivists to reject choice theories in favor of discipline-specific theories tested by examination of correlations among directly measurable variables. Today, disciplinary theories of crime rely more on a priori principles than those theories they were designed to replace. This article critiques these p…
The Significance of White‐collar Crime for a General Theory of Crime
Advocates of the concept of white‐collar crime have failed to make the case for its scientific value. Steffensmeier's efforts to save the concept further support our view that it is flawed and misleading. His efforts support our contention that the correlates of white‐collar crime are the same as the correlates of crime, that the age distribution of offending is the same for white‐collar crimes as for other crimes, that official statistics have s…
Decision Making in Criminal Justice: Toward the Rational Exercise of Discretion
Science, Public Policy, and the Career Paradigm
The career model reappears with some consistency in the history of criminology. It consistently fails, however, to organize the facts about crime in a meaningful way. As a consequence, we predict that criminology will once again abandon career models in favor of theories of crime
Policy Guidelines for Bail: An Experiment in Court Reform
Punishment and restitution: A restitutionary approach to crime and the criminal
Age and the Explanation of Crime
One of the few facts agreed on in criminology is the age distribution of crime. This fact has been used to criticize social theories of crime causation, to provide the foundation for other theories, to justify recent emphases on career criminals, and to support claims of superiority for longitudinal designs in criminological research. In the present paper, we argue that the age distribution of crime is sufficiently invariant over a broad range of…
A Study of the Behavior of Law
In The Behavior of Law, Black (1976) sets forth a theory of law that he argues explains variations in law across societies and among individuals within societies. Black argues that law can be conceived of as a quantitative variable, measured by the number and scope of prohibitions, obligations and other standards to which people are subject. Law varies, according to Black, with other aspects of social life, including stratification, morphology, c…
The True Value of Lambda Would Appear to Be Zero: An Essay on Career Criminals, Criminal Careers, Selective Incapacitation, Cohort Studies, and Related Topics
The idea of selective incapacitation and the distinction between prevalence and incidence (participation and lambda) justify the search for a group of offenders whose criminality does not decline with age and who may be identified solely on the basis of legally relevant variables. This paper questions such research, arguing that the decline in age with crime characterizes even the most active offenders. and that the distinction between incidence …
The Methodological Adequacy of Longitudinal Research on Crime
This paper argues that the increasing dominance in contemporary criminology of the longitudinal or cohort study is not justified on methodological grounds, that this research design has taken criminological theory in unproductive directions, has produced illusory substantive findings, and has promoted policy conclusions of doubtful utility. In addition, it is noted that longitudinal research is very expensive and therefore has high opportunity co…
Causes of White‐collar Crime
This paper begins with a conceptual analysis of the idea of white‐collar crime. It considers data relevant to popular images of white‐collar crime and outlines a general theory of crime explicitly applicable to both ordinary and white‐collar crime. This theory is compared with traditional explanations of white‐collar crime, and several explicit empirical tests of rival views are described
In Defense of Self-Control
In the 10 years since its publication in A General Theory of Crime, the authors' self-control theory has been the focus of considerable research and critical assessment. This article responds to questions about the theory that have attracted the most thoughtful attention in the serious literature of the field
Science, Public Policy, and the Career Paradigm
The career model reappears with some consistency in the history of criminology. It consistently fails, however, to organize the facts about crime in a meaningful way. As a consequence, we predict that criminology will once again abandon career models in favor of theories of crime
Social Indicators of Adolescent Activities near Peers and Parents
This paper reconstructs social indicators of activity patterns at age 17. Respondents were asked to recall various features of daily life at that age. The results indicate a secular decline in the time adolescents spend in family and household settings and with parents nearby
The Significance of White‐collar Crime for a General Theory of Crime
Advocates of the concept of white‐collar crime have failed to make the case for its scientific value. Steffensmeier's efforts to save the concept further support our view that it is flawed and misleading. His efforts support our contention that the correlates of white‐collar crime are the same as the correlates of crime, that the age distribution of offending is the same for white‐collar crimes as for other crimes, that official statistics have s…
Substantive Contributions of Victimization Surveys
Two decades of victimization research have contributed substantially to the criminological research base. Among the core findings of the National Crime Survey (NCS) are that the bulk of events uncovered by the surveys are relatively trivial, that criminal victimization of the types measured is relatively rare, and that there is a large amount of repeat victimization. Despite methodological differences between the NCS and the Uniform Crime Reports…
Theory and Research in the Sociology of Law
Age and Crime, Logic and Scholarship: Comment on Greenberg
Self‐Control Theory
Self‐control is a concept used by sociologists to explain differences among people in the frequency of engaging in a wide variety of acts that cause harm to others (Gottfredson & Hirschi 1990). It is defined as the tendency to avoid acts whose long‐term costs exceed their momentary advantages. The costs include penalties from institutions such as schools and the criminal justice system, the loss of affection from family and friends, loss of jobs …
Offender Classifications and Treatment Effects in Developmental Criminology: A Propensity/ Event Consideration
Developmental criminology has raised the prospect that empirical classifications of offenders based on variations in the age of offending will assist in the prediction of and explanation for crime and delinquency. Additionally, developmental criminology suggests that events late in the life course may alter offending propensities in significant ways. Recent empirical works provide compelling evidence about these claims and provide support for gen…
Sociological Aspects of Criminal Victimization
A General Theory of Crime
Risk-based crime statistics: A forecasting comparison for burglary and auto theft
Time served in prison and parole outcomes among parolee risk categories
A consideration of telescoping and memory decay biases in victimization surveys
An empirical analysis of pre-trial release decisions
National crime control policies
Substantive Positivism and the Idea of Crime
Efforts to construct theories of crime consistent with a priori principles typically prove unsatisfactory. Awareness of this fact led the early positivists to reject choice theories in favor of discipline-specific theories tested by examination of correlations among directly measurable variables. Today, disciplinary theories of crime rely more on a priori principles than those theories they were designed to replace. This article critiques these p…
The Social Scientist and Rehabilitative Crime Policy
Social scientists are in a quandary about crime policy. On the one hand, the tools of their discipline incline them naturally toward a search for the causes of differences in delinquent behavior, an inclination which appears to be supportive of the potential for rehabilitative components to crime policy. Both the premise of determinism and the methodology of differentiation are intellectually compatible with the prospects for rehabilitation, beca…
Trite But True
Policy Implications About Properties of Arrest Risk Across Populations of Provisional Employees With and Without a Criminal Record
An empirical analysis of pre-trial release decisions
Time served in prison and parole outcomes among parolee risk categories
A consideration of telescoping and memory decay biases in victimization surveys
A Study of the Behavior of Law
In The Behavior of Law, Black (1976) sets forth a theory of law that he argues explains variations in law across societies and among individuals within societies. Black argues that law can be conceived of as a quantitative variable, measured by the number and scope of prohibitions, obligations and other standards to which people are subject. Law varies, according to Black, with other aspects of social life, including stratification, morphology, c…
Theory and Research in the Sociology of Law
Understanding crime: Current Theory and Research
Trite But True
On the Etiology of Criminal Victimization
Two assertions that have never been particularly controversial among criminologists are, first, that the amount and kinds of victimization experienced by a group of people or by a class of objects depend on the exposure of the class to crime and second, that some people or kinds of objects are more exposed to crime than are others.The assertions are considered, at least implicitly, whenever a rate is altered so as to reflect a "population at risk…
Decisionmaking in Criminal Justice: Toward the Rational Exercise of Discretion
1 Overview.- 2 The Victim's Decision to Report a Crime.- 3 The Decision to Arrest.- 4 Pretrial Release Decisions.- 5 The Decision to Charge.- 6 Sentencing Decisions.- 7 Correctional Decisions in the Community.- 8 Correctional Decisions in Institutions.- 9 Parole Decisions.- 10 Toward More Rational Decision Making.- Author Index
Sociological Aspects of Criminal Victimization
Victims of Personal Crime: An Empirical Foundation for a Theory of Personal Victimization
The Social Scientist and Rehabilitative Crime Policy
Social scientists are in a quandary about crime policy. On the one hand, the tools of their discipline incline them naturally toward a search for the causes of differences in delinquent behavior, an inclination which appears to be supportive of the potential for rehabilitative components to crime policy. Both the premise of determinism and the methodology of differentiation are intellectually compatible with the prospects for rehabilitation, beca…
Prison Behavior and Release Performance: Empirical Reality and Public Policy
It is argued widely that an inmate's behavior while in prison is not related to his or her behavior after release. This putative lack of a relation is a point set forth in debates about discretionary release from prison by parole boards. This article reviews the empirical status of the prison behavior and release performance controversy and offers new data from the federal jurisdiction. The results indicate that there is some relation between off…
Radical Issues in Criminology
This collection of essays deals with central issues relating to the rule of law, individual rights and the politics of penal reform. The issues examined include juvenile justice, criminal violence, feminism and criminology, civil liberties, police powers, justice in prisons and the necessity for social life to be regulated by law. The emphasis throughout is upon specific concrete problems and the formulation of possible solutions. In marked contr…
Legal Aim, Discretion, and Social Control: A Case Study of the Federal Youth Corrections Act
This study attempts to ascertain how the legal a i m of rehabilitation are applied, as well as their social control consequences for a group of offenders sentenced under the Federal Youth Corrections Act (FYCA) of 1950. Discriminant function analyses were conducted on a random sample of 452 persons selected f o r a “special” FYCA rehabilitative disposition and 758 persons accorded a regular punitive disposition, to determine 1) the factors that i…
Age and the Explanation of Crime
One of the few facts agreed on in criminology is the age distribution of crime. This fact has been used to criticize social theories of crime causation, to provide the foundation for other theories, to justify recent emphases on career criminals, and to support claims of superiority for longitudinal designs in criminological research. In the present paper, we argue that the age distribution of crime is sufficiently invariant over a broad range of…
Social Indicators of Adolescent Activities near Peers and Parents
This paper reconstructs social indicators of activity patterns at age 17. Respondents were asked to recall various features of daily life at that age. The results indicate a secular decline in the time adolescents spend in family and household settings and with parents nearby
Urban Structure and Victimization
Risk-based crime statistics: A forecasting comparison for burglary and auto theft
All Wise After the Fact Learning Theory, Again: Reply to Baldwin
Age and Crime, Logic and Scholarship: Comment on Greenberg
Substantive Contributions of Victimization Surveys
Two decades of victimization research have contributed substantially to the criminological research base. Among the core findings of the National Crime Survey (NCS) are that the bulk of events uncovered by the surveys are relatively trivial, that criminal victimization of the types measured is relatively rare, and that there is a large amount of repeat victimization. Despite methodological differences between the NCS and the Uniform Crime Reports…
The True Value of Lambda Would Appear to Be Zero: An Essay on Career Criminals, Criminal Careers, Selective Incapacitation, Cohort Studies, and Related Topics
The idea of selective incapacitation and the distinction between prevalence and incidence (participation and lambda) justify the search for a group of offenders whose criminality does not decline with age and who may be identified solely on the basis of legally relevant variables. This paper questions such research, arguing that the decline in age with crime characterizes even the most active offenders. and that the distinction between incidence …
Policy Guidelines for Bail: An Experiment in Court Reform
Punishment and restitution: A restitutionary approach to crime and the criminal
Psychology (38 works) · Criminology (37 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (29 works) · Sociology (28 works) · Political science (26 works) · Law (21 works) · Computer Science (17 works) · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance (16 works) · Social Psychology (15 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (13 works)