“One of the world’s most famous criminologists” spoke Thursday to a crowd of more than 40 people about “Control Theory and the Limits of the Criminal Sanction” in the Molecular Biology building.

Michael R. Gottfredson is the executive vice chancellor and professor of criminology, law, and society at the University of California, Irvine.

Fred Lorenz, professor of sociology and statistics, said he admired Gottfredson’s work.

“This is a great opportunity to hear an authority speak,” he said. “Gottfredson has done good empirical work.”

Gottfredson said crime has three consistent facts – age effects, versatility and stability.

“Arrest rates are the highest in late adolescence to early adulthood across many categories, in all parts of the world,” he said.

Delinquents are generally not specialized in regard to the crimes they commit, he said.

“Crime rates tie in with school difficulties and drug use as well,” Gottfredson said. “If you do one, you’ll tend to do another.”

Gottfredson said people are taught from birth to “subordinate our individual pursuits of pleasure” to what others expect of them.

“When people conform readily, they fall in the low crime rate group,” he said. “When they refuse to conform, they are likely to fall into the high crime rate group.”

Gottfredson said the U.S. government invests a lot of resources in our country’s punishment system.

“One adult male for every 30 is under correction provision,” he said. “That’s remarkable when you stop to think about it.”

“Two million people are being held in prisons today,” he said. “In 1999, $147 billion was spent on criminal sanctions, or arresting and punishing criminals.”

Most people who commit criminal acts have escaped the common controls of friends, families and schools, he said.

“These institutions no longer constrain their behavior,” he said.

“People who do these things aren’t asking themselves, `What would my mother think?’ or `What would my father think?’.”

An important aspect when analyzing criminal sanctions is to make a connection between theories of crime and what the state is authorized to do about crime, Gottfredson said.

“We know the state is punishing too much when the punishment exceeds the deterrent effect,” he said.