Another approach is made by the social bond or 

social control theory. Instead of looking for

factors that make people become criminal, these theories try to explain why people
do not become criminal. Travis Hirschi identified four main characteristics: "attachment to
others", "belief in moral validity of rules", "commitment to achievement", and "involvement in
conventional activities".[37] The more a person features those characteristics, the less likely he or
she is to become deviant (or criminal). On the other hand, if these factors are not present, a
person is more likely to become a criminal. Hirschi expanded on this theory with the idea that a
person with low self-control is more likely to become criminal. As opposed to most criminology
theories, these do not look at why people commit crime but rather why they do not commit crime.
[38]

A simple example: Someone wants a big yacht but does not have the means to buy one. If the
person cannot exert self-control, he or she might try to get the yacht (or the means for it) in an
illegal way, whereas someone with high self-control will (more likely) either wait, deny
themselves of what want or seek an intelligent intermediate solution, such as joining a yacht club
to use a yacht by group consolidation of resources without violating social norms.
Social bonds, through peers, parents, and others can have a countering effect on one's low self-
control. For families of low socio-economic status, a factor that distinguishes families with
delinquent children, from those who are not delinquent, is the control exerted by parents
or chaperonage.[39] In addition, theorists such as David Matza and Gresham Sykes argued that
criminals are able to temporarily neutralize internal moral and social-behavioral constraints
through techniques of neutralization.
Psychoanalytic[edit]
Main article: Psychoanalytic criminology
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory (and therapy) which regards the unconscious
mind, repressed memories and trauma, as the key drivers of behavior, especially deviant
behavior.[40]Sigmund Freud talks about how the unconscious desire for pain relates to
psychoanalysis in his essay, Beyond the Pleasure Principle,.[40] Freud suggested that
unconscious impulses such as ‘repetition compulsion’ and a ‘death drive’ can dominate a
person's creativity, leading to self-destructive behavior. Phillida Rosnick, in the article Mental
Pain and Social Trauma, posits a difference in the thoughts of individuals suffering traumatic
unconscious pain which corresponds to them having thoughts and feelings which are not
reflections of their true selves. There is enough correlation between this altered state of mind and
criminality to suggest causation. [41]  Sander Gilman, in the article Freud and the Making of
Psychoanalysis, looks for evidence in the physical mechanisms of the human brain and
the nervous system and suggests there is a direct link between an unconscious desire for pain or
punishment and the impulse to commit crime or deviant acts. [42]

Symbolic interactionism[edit]
Main article: Symbolic interactionism
Symbolic interactionism draws on the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl and George Herbert
Mead, as well as subcultural theory and conflict theory.[43] This school of thought focused on the
relationship between state, media, and conservative-ruling elite and other less powerful groups.
The powerful groups had the ability to become the "significant other" in the less powerful groups'
processes of generating meaning. The former could to some extent impose their meanings on
the latter; therefore they were able to "label" minor delinquent youngsters as criminal. These
youngsters would often take the label on board, indulge in crime more readily, and
become actors in the "self-fulfilling prophecy" of the powerful groups. Later developments in this
set of theories were by Howard Becker and Edwin Lemert, in the mid-20th century.[44] Stanley