Fischer B J, Bersani C A
Adolescence. 1979 Spring;14(53):197-214.
Some of the delinquency literature sustains the assumption that inept persons doing unworthy things is the self-view held by youth offenders, "Disadvantaged" or "adverse" background characteristics are often assumed to account for low self-esteem among delinquent offenders. However, the implications of control theory suggest that youths having few bonds to people and institutions are relatively "free" to drift into delinquency without serious damage to self-esteem. The hypothesis we examined was derived from the work of control theorists: that self-esteem would be higher for offenders "removed" from conventional ties, lower for those who maintained conventional attachments. Data from 75 male delinquent offenders incarcerated at a correctional youth institution are used in testing this relationship. Our hypothesis received strong support. The implication drawn from these results is that the impact of the correctional process on self-esteem may be far less important than the myriad relationships previously established with people and institutions. These results pertaining to a special category of youth are in keeping with the reported findings on the link between deprivation and self-esteem of general youth populations.
一些关于青少年犯罪的文献支持这样一种假设，即青少年罪犯持有这样的自我认知：笨拙的人做着不值得做的事，人们常常认为“弱势”或“不利”的背景特征是青少年罪犯自卑的原因。然而，控制理论的观点表明，与人和机构联系较少的青少年相对“自由”，更容易陷入犯罪，而不会对自尊造成严重损害。我们所检验的假设源自控制理论学家的研究：与传统关系“脱离”的罪犯自尊水平较高，而与传统关系保持联系的罪犯自尊水平较低。我们使用了来自一所青少年教养机构中75名男性罪犯的数据来检验这种关系。我们的假设得到了有力支持。从这些结果得出的结论是，教养过程对自尊的影响可能远不如之前与人和机构建立的无数关系重要。这些关于一类特殊青少年的结果与有关普通青少年群体中匮乏与自尊之间联系的报道结果一致。
