Veruca Salt wants everything, and she wants it now. A golden ticket, a trained squirrel, the whole world: if she desires it, she throws a tantrum until her father buys it for her. She is not violent or especially cruel — she is pure, unchecked impulsivity. And according to the theory of low self-control, that inability to wait, to accept a no and to think about the consequences is, precisely, the common root of almost all crime.
// The theoryThe trait behind almost all crime
In A General Theory of Crime (1990), Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi made a bold bet: almost all criminal conduct —from theft to assault, from fraud to the reckless accident— shares one underlying factor, low self-control. People with little self-control, they said, tend to be impulsive, to prefer the immediate and the easy, to seek thrills and risks, to be insensitive to others and to blow up easily. Crime appeals to them because it offers immediate gratification with no effort, and they do not calculate (or do not care about) the future cost. You do not need a different theory for each crime: it is enough to explain why some people find it so hard to control the impulse.
And where does that self-control —or its absence— come from? From early upbringing, they answered. Self-control is learned in the first years if parents do three things: supervise the child, recognise when he or she misbehaves and correct it. Where that upbringing is missing —through neglect or, as with Veruca, through absolute permissiveness—, the child never internalises the capacity to wait or to hold back. Veruca is the laboratory case: she lacks neither affection nor resources, she lacks a «no». Her father satisfies every whim instantly, and in doing so he prevents her from developing the one thing that, according to the theory, would protect her from a life of trouble: the ability to tolerate frustration.
The gratification that cannot wait
The heart of the theory is the delay of gratification: the ability to give up a small reward now for a larger one later. It is the skill that the famous «marshmallow test» measures in children, and that predicts, surprisingly well, success and problems in adult life. Veruca is its perfect negative: for her there is no «later», only «now». And although her whims seem harmless —a squirrel, a chocolate—, the theory warns that this very trait, in another context, is the one that leads to taking what belongs to others without thinking, to lashing out in the heat of the moment, to risking everything for an immediate thrill. Crime, for Gottfredson and Hirschi, is nothing more than another form of «I want it now» — and Veruca is its childhood manifesto.
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// The subjectThe girl her parents did not help to grow up
What matters about Veruca is that the theory points to the parents as much as to the girl. Roald Dahl was crystal clear: each child in the factory embodies a flaw cultivated at home, and Veruca's is the lack of limits. Her father, Mr Salt, is not an abuser — he is a man who believes he loves her by giving her everything she asks for, and who in doing so does her a deep harm: he robs her of the chance to learn to wait, to earn, to accept a no. The theory of low self-control thus distributes responsibility in a way that is as unsettling as it is illuminating: the impulsive person is not «born broken», he or she is raised without the tool that would have allowed them not to be. Veruca is not a bad seed; she is a normal girl whom well-meaning parents, by refusing her nothing, left without defences. Her tragedy (falling down the rubbish chute, «a bad nut») is Dahl's metaphor: what is not corrected in childhood, the world discards in adulthood.
Veruca Salt
// The crackDoes a single trait explain everything?
The theory's ambition —to explain all crime with a single trait— is also its weak point. It is criticised for a certain circularity (how do we know someone has low self-control? because they offend; why do they offend? because of their low self-control), for the difficulty of measuring it without cheating, and for ignoring weighty factors: white-collar crime (Gekko is hardly an impulsive man), organised crime that demands planning, or the role of opportunity and structure. It also assumes that self-control is «fixed» by around the age of ten, something later research qualifies (it can improve later on). Veruca illustrates the mechanism so clearly precisely because she is a simple case; the reality of crime rarely fits entirely into a single trait, however important it may be.
Teaching how to wait
If low self-control is such a powerful factor and its origin is upbringing, then the most effective prevention is surprisingly early and far from policing: supporting families, teaching parenting patterns that combine affection with limits, and developing in children the capacity to tolerate frustration and delay gratification. Parenting and social-emotional skills programmes in early childhood have shown real effects on later behaviour. Veruca is Dahl's gentle warning: you do not do a child a favour by giving them everything they ask for — you do it by giving them the strength to withstand a no. Teaching someone to wait is not rigidity; it is, according to this theory, one of the best vaccines against a life of impulses that turn out to be costly.
Three key takeaways
- The theory of low self-control (Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990): almost all crime shares one underlying factor —impulsivity, the inability to delay gratification—. Veruca («I want it now!») is its pure portrait.
- Its origin is upbringing: self-control is learned if parents supervise, recognise and correct. Veruca does not lack affection, she lacks a «no»: permissiveness robbed her of the capacity to wait.
- The crack: explaining everything with one trait is its limit (circularity; it ignores white-collar crime, opportunity). But its prevention is powerful and early: support upbringing and teach how to tolerate frustration.
Sources · further reading
- Gottfredson, M. R. & Hirschi, T. (1990). A General Theory of Crime. Stanford University Press.
- Mischel, W. (2014). El test de la golosina. Debate.
- Pratt, T. C. & Cullen, F. T. (2000). «The Empirical Status of Gottfredson and Hirschi's General Theory of Crime». Criminology, 38(3).
- Moffitt, T. E. et al. (2011). «A Gradient of Childhood Self-Control Predicts Health, Wealth, and Public Safety». PNAS, 108(7).
Case-file questionsFrequently asked questions
¿Quién es Veruca Salt?
Veruca Salt («Veruca») es un villano de Charlie y la fábrica de chocolate, analizado en KRIMINIS con la lente de la criminología. Veruca Salt wants everything, and she wants it now.
¿Por qué Veruca Salt se convierte en villano?
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and low self-control: Veruca Salt does not wait, does not share and does not take no for an answer — because nobody ever taught her to. She is the textbook portrait of Gottfredson and Hirschi's theory: crime springs from impulsivity, and impulsivity from an upbringing without limits.
¿Qué teoría criminológica explica a Veruca Salt?
El caso de Veruca Salt se analiza desde la Bajo autocontrol. Gottfredson and Hirschi's theory of low self-control (A General Theory of Crime, 1990) holds that the common factor behind almost all criminal conduct is low self-control: impulsivity, the inability to postpone gratification, the pursuit of the immediate and easy. And its origin lies in upbringing: parents who do not supervise, do not recognise deviant behaviour or do not correct it. Veruca Salt is its perfect illustration: a girl without the slightest self-control, the product of parents who never told her «no». She commits no serious crimes, but she embodies the trait from which, according to the theory, they spring.
