Self-control, Gender, and the Impacts on the Deviant Behaviors

Crime patterns and styles show that crime is a gendered phenomenon. This study seeks to explain the gender gaps in deviant behaviors, using the general theory of crime and analyses the role of self-control in deviant behaviors of boys and girls. The present research was carried out through survey method and a statistical sample of 420 students of Orumieh University in the academic year of 2010- 2011 was included in this study. The results of the mean difference test show that access to diversion opportunities and participation in deviant behaviors of the two genders are significantly different and the self-control mean of the two genders has been different, though not significantly. Moreover, the results of multivariate regression show that three variations of self-control, diversion opportunity, and the gender of respondents have significant impacts on their participation in deviant behaviors. Self-control variation, among three other main variables in this research, stands as the strongest predictor of boys’ and girls’ deviant behaviors.