APPLICATION OF SOCIAL CONTROL THEORY ON BAGCILAR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS: HIRSCHI'S MODEL

Abstract

The delinquency and drug problems have wide range of damaging consequences not only for
the individuals involved in delinquency and illegal drug use, but also for their families and the overall
community. In order to overcome such problems, understanding the causation or restraining factors
in determining both delinquency and illegal substance use oriented behaviors is essential.
Unfortunately, there are limited studies to understand the reasons and restraining factors of
delinquency and illegal substance use within criminological theories in Turkey. However, there are
outnumber studies carried out to test the validity of various criminological theories in explaining
delinquency and illegal substance use in other Western country cases. Among such theories, ‘social
control theory’, as one of the most accepted and strongest criminological theories, has been tested
in those countries. However, limited numbers of studies have been conducted on ‘social control
theory’ in the countries where traditional values are still dominant, such as Turkey. Therefore, this
study aims to fill this gap in the case of Turkey.
The aim of this study, hence, is to measure the nexus between social control elements and
both delinquency and illegal substance use among Bagcilar High School students within the
theoretical framework of ‘social control theory’. Bagcilar is the biggest borough of Istanbul, which
has received migration from different parts of Turkey in the last thirty years with different cultural
backgrounds. Therefore, it is one of the cosmopolitan parts of the Istanbul city with its population
diversity.
In fulfilling the aim of the study, secondary data has been used in testing the social control
theory for which the variables have been derived from various studies based on literature review.
Extensive statistical analyses were applied to the data set to measure the relationships between
social control variables and delinquency and illegal substance use related behaviour, which included
correlation and regression analyses.
The findings show that some of the social control variables verified the social control theory
in Bagcilar’s case, while others did not. As a result, social control theory with its identified variables
explains 31.9 percent of delinquency and 34.5 percent of illegal substance use in overall. It is
important to note that some of the variables considered to be im portant in the Turkish case such as
religion could not be found as a significant variable. On the other hand, it has been observed that
family structure is statistically significant on younger ages while it is not statistically significant for
elders.
Based on finding, policy recommendations have been made for both law enforcement
agencies and other governmental institutions, because it has been widely accepted that fighting with
delinquency and illegal substance use cannot be limited to law enforcement agencies, as the
involvement of other social policy oriented organizations are indispensable.