s stress the importance of these factors. (In other words, while all control theorists believe that all people would commit crimes if they thought that they could get away with them, some also believe that criminals have in addition to this pan-human tendency special factors in their lives or personalities that incline them toward criminal acts.) (Reckless, 1967)
In fact, as Akers (1997, p. 80) points out in his analysis of RecklessÆs work, there is actually less substantive difference between control theories and other theories of criminal behavior than was at least initially argued, for all theories that seek to explain criminal behavior are in fact asking the same question: Why do some people commit crimes and others refrain from doing so (Akers, 1997, p. 80)?
RecklessÆs highly developed control theory incorporated work by other theoreticians such as Albert Reiss and Ivan Nye, who in turn based their own work on long-standing and widely accepted sociological principles (some of which are set forth in DurkheimÆs 1951 treatise on suicide). Reiss û following in a long-accepted sociological tradition û posited a model of social control that includes both internal control (also called socialization), in which a person learns to control his or her own behavior, and external control, in which a person is controlled by other people (usually agents of the state). Reiss called these two forms of control ôpersonalö control and ôsocial controlö (Akers, 1997, p. 81), noting that social control is exercised through both informal social and cultural sanctions and formal legal sanctions. (To this list must be added sanctions that are both extra-legal and formal such as ex-communication and the Amish practice of shunning.)
Control theories that predated RecklessÆs work û and on which in some measure he based his own model û include the work done by both Nye and Reiss. NyeÆs model of control theory divided ReissÆs dichotomy into...