PERSONAL CAPITAL AND SOCIAL CONTROL: THE DETERRENCE IMPLICATIONS OF A THEORY OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN CRIMINAL OFFENDING" DANIEL S. NAGIN Carnegie Mellon University RAYMOND PATERNOSTER University of Maryland zyxwv A large and growing literature links stable individual differences established early in life to deviant behavior through the life course. This literature challenges basic premises of modern sociological and economic theories of deviance that emphasize explanatory factors that are more proximate in time and external to the individual. In this paper we present and test a theory designed to link rational choice and social control theories with two leading examples of theories that emphasize stable individual differences (Wilson and Herrnstein, zyx 1985; Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990). Based on appeals to the economic theory of invest- ment, we argue that individuals who are more present oriented and self- centered invest less in social bonds and therefore are less deterred from committing crime by the possibility of damage to such bonds. Thus, our theory, which builds from key constructs of the Gottfredson-Hir- schi and Wilson-Herrnstein theories, departs from those theories with the contention that social control does matter. Criminological theories have developed along two distinctive and largely segregated tracks. One track comprises theories of the person. These theories emphasize enduring individual characteristics that dispose persons to engage in crime throughout life. The second track consists of theories of the environment, which attribute crime to circumstances and situations in the social setting. These circumstances and situations are external and temporally proximate to the individual, and they may also vary over the life course. The former type of theory is exemplified by the work of Glueck and Glueck (1930, 1968)) Robins (1966), and West and Farrington (1977). Some examples of the latter include Akers (1985), Cloward and Ohlin (1960), Hirschi (1969), and Sutherland (1955). zy * zyxwvuts This research zyxwvu was supported by the National Science Foundation under grants SES-9122403 and SES-9023109. We thank Robert Sampson and anonymous referees for helpful comments. CRIMINOLOGY VOLUME 32 NUMBER 4 1994 581