Assessing the Validity of the Retrospective Behavioral Self-Control Scale: Is the General Theory of Crime Stronger Than the Evidence Suggests?

• NCJ Number: 229781
• Journal: Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 37 Issue: 3 Dated: March 2010 Pages: 336-357
• Author(s): Jeffrey T. Ward; Chris L. Gibson; John Boman; Walter L. Leite
• Date Published: March 2010
• Length: 22 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Test/Measurement; Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study assessed the validity of a recently introduced behavioral measure of self-control.

Abstract

Although there have been nearly 20 years of research on self-control theory, the measurement problems of the theory's core construct linger and call into question the efficacy of self-control as a predictor of crime and delinquency. This study assessed the validity of a recently introduced behavioral measure of self-control, the Retrospective Behavioral Self-Control (RBS) measure, which is argued to remedy the conceptual and empirical problems afflicting prior self-control measures. Using a sample of students at a large southern university, this study finds that although a unidimensional and content-valid 18-item RBS measure is not as strong a predictor of crime and delinquency as the original RBS, it has substantially more predictive power than the most commonly used attitudinal measure of self-control, the Grasmick et al. scale. The implications of these findings for empirical tests of self-control theory as well as future directions for the measurement of self-control are discussed. Tables, figures, appendix, and references (Published Abstract)