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Religion and Social Control: An Application of a Modified Social Bond on Violence

The central question explored in this article is whether the elements of a revised social bond, which includes religion, will have an impact on violence across developmental stages. Tests of social control theory are numerous, but criticism centers on the fact that the theory has limited explanatory power. Further, although social control theory is a popular theory, it was created without addressing a control whose importance was suggested by several of the authors from whom Hirschi borrowed—religion. The current study includes such measures in an attempt to determine whether the theory should be expanded when examining violence. The results indicate that social control theory is a poor explanation of violence. Specifically, only peer commitment was found to be significant for early adolescents. In addition, only school attachment, belief, and school and peer commitment were found to be significant for the middle developmental stage. Further, only school attachment and school commitment attained significance for late adolescents. Finally, the assertion that religion should be added to the social bond for the modeling of violence was not supported in this study, and further research is needed to ascertain the importance of such an addition.

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