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Capacity for Self-Control and Individuals' Interest in Exercising Self-Control

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Abstract

We identify and elaborate a conceptual distinction between capability for self-control and the desire to exercise it, and employ data from a city survey to explore the empirical viability of such a differentiation. Separate scales measuring ability and desire to exercise self-control both prove to be significant and moderately strong predictors of several measures of criminal/deviant behavior, showing independent, cumulative, and interactive relationships with each other. For some measures of crime/deviance, self-control capability is most effective when the individual's interest in exercising self-control is low but its effect is greatly reduced or eliminated when desire to exercise self-control desire is high. Combinations of capability for self-control and interest in exercising it prove to be particularly good predictors of the absolute level of misbehavior.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, North Carolina State University, USA

    Charles R. Tittle

  2. Department of Sociology, Clemson University, USA

    David A. Ward

  3. Department of Sociology, University of Oklahoma, Japan

    Harold G. Grasmick

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Tittle, C.R., Ward, D.A. & Grasmick, H.G. Capacity for Self-Control and Individuals' Interest in Exercising Self-Control. Journal of Quantitative Criminology 20, 143–172 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOQC.0000029092.81837.74

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