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6 Theoretical Criminology 5 (2002)

handle is hein.journals/thcr6 and id is 1 raw text is: 






                                        Theoretical Criminology
                                        Q 2002 SAGE Publications
                                        London, Thousand Oaks
                                               and New Delhi.
                                         1362-4806(200202)6:1
                                         Vol. 6(1): 5-33; 021193




Attachment, masculinity, and

self-control:

A  theory   of  male   crime   rates


KAREN   L. HAYSLETT-MCCALL AND
THOMAS J. BERNARD
The  Pennsylvania  State University, USA


Abstract

Attachment theory and research from developmental psychology
suggest that disruptions in attachments to primary caregivers in
early childhood have long-term negative consequences. Scholars in
the emerging field of men's studies argue that boys
disproportionately experience these disruptions of early attachment
and that these disruptions are causally related to elements of what
is often described as the masculine gender role. These two bodies
of theory and research are combined with Gottfredson and Hirschi's
(1990) theory of low self-control in a new theory of
disproportionate male offending.

Key Words

attachment * male crime rates * masculinity * self-control




Gender  is the strongest and most consistent correlate of crime and delin-
quency  (Bartusch and  Matsueda,  1996).  The  explanation of gendered
differences in the likelihood of offending (the 'gender ratio' problem) has
received increasing attention from criminologists in the last several decades,
especially from feminist criminologists (Daly and Chesney-Lind,  1988).
Heidensohn  (1997: 791) remarks  that one of the lessons from all of this
material, 'stunning in its implications,' is that 'we have to ask a different


5

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