Transcript piche 2330 Developmental Pathways

Psychological Explanations of
Criminal Behavior
Developmental Pathways of
Juvenile Delinquency
Winter 2014
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Moffitt’s theory on pathways to delinquency
Patterson’s theory on pathways to delinquency
Behaviour disorders in childhood and adolescence
Social factors in delinquency in childhood and
adolescence
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attachment
Peers
Poverty/Social class
Family (parenting styles; abuse)
Developmental Theories
Age and Criminal Behaviour
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A small number of individuals engage in
persistent antisocial behaviour from an early
age;
In adolescence, there is a temporary increase in
the number of people involved in antisocial
behaviour; and
Moffitt’s theory: there are 2 kinds of
adolescent offenders
Developmental Theories
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Age and Criminal Behaviour
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What childhood factors predict delinquency?
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At age 3 years
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At age 15 years
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Measured more than 30 variables measuring the children’s
behaviour and development
Compared data at age 3 (predictor variables) with antisocial
outcome at age 15
Delinquent or not delinquent at age 15 years
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Temperament, Externalizing problems, Low vocabulary,
Poor social/interpersonal skills
Moffitt’s explanation…2 kinds of
offenders
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Juvenile Offenders
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Childhood Onset (Lifecourse Persistent)
 Serious and persistent antisocial behaviour
 3 – 5% of general population
Adolescent Onset (Adolescent-Limited)
 70% general population
Life Course
Adolescent Limited
Crime or antisocial
behavior begins
Early (perhaps as early
as age 3)
Later (usually during
early adolescent years)
Criminal behavior
Continues throughout
lifespan
Usually stop after early
adulthood
Types of criminal
behavior
Assorted
Assorted
Developmental
background
Often shows
neurological problems,
ADHD, conduct
problems
Usually normal and
without neurological
problems
Academic Skills
Usually below average
Usually average to
above average
Interpersonal and
social skills
Usually below average
Usually average to
above average
Life-Course Persistent
Offender
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The child who:
Bites and hits at 4 with aggression problems
Shoplifts and skips school at 10
Sells drugs and steals cars at age 16
Commits robbery at age 22
Commits fraud and child abuse at age 30
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Different behaviours with same underlying
concept
Life-Course Persistent:
The Beginning
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Disrupted neuropsychological development
e.g. drug & alcohol use during pregnancy; brain injuries, nutrition
deprivation; abuse and neglect; inherited vulnerabilities)
“Difficult” child
impulsive, hyperactive, irritable
Parents of “difficult” child lack resources to rear effectively
Problematic child/environment interactions
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responds to new situations with same attitudes and
behaviours
Selects environments that support their delinquent
behaviour.
Life-Course Persistent:
Maintenance over the life course
Cumulative consequences:
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Problem behaviour early in life, began a series of unfortunate
consequences; snowball effect
Contemporary consequences:
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Problem behaviour persists and causes current unfortunate
consequences.
E.g. temper/difficulty controlling anger
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Restricted behavioural repertoire
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Do not learn prosocial alternatives
Learn to expect rejection
Miss opportunities to acquire and practice prosocial and interpersonal skills
at each stage of development.
“Snares” maintain antisocial behaviour
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e.g. drug addiction, school dropout, teenage pregnancy
Adolescent-Limited
Antisocial Behaviour
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Adolescent-Limited Offender are only
delinquent during adolescence.
Mimicry and reinforcement
Cross-situational inconsistency
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At home, at school, with friends
Temporal instability
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Temporary, mixed with good behaviour
Hypothesized different types of crime
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Adolescence-Limited: crimes that symbolize
adult privilege, independence and control
Life-course Persistent: Wider array of offences,
more offences with victims
Adolescent-Limited:
The Beginning
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Why does delinquency increase in adolescence?
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Life-course persistent boys don’t appear to suffer
much from the “maturity gap”
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Maturity Gap
 Biologically mature, yet without desired social opportunities-creates an angst—want to be more adult and independent
Independent, have material things, sexual experience
Adolescent-Limited Antisocial boys momentarily mimic them
and join in their antisocial activities
Antisocial behaviour is a way to respond to the
maturity gap angst
Hypothetical Reinforcers for
Delinquency Include:
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damaging the quality of intimacy and communication
with parents
provoking responses from adults in positions of
authority
finding ways to look older (tattoos; cigarettes, big
spender with illegal profits)
risk taking (drinking and driving; risking pregnancy;
shoplifting)
proving maturity and autonomy are strong personal
motives for offending
Adolescent-Limited
Why don’t all youths become
antisocial?
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Some don’t suffer from “maturity gap”
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Mature later
Have adult responsibilities and privileges
Some don’t associate with delinquent group
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Alienated from the group and can’t join
Religious and cultural associations
Rural areas have lower adolescent crime rates
Adolescent-Limited:
Desistence
Why does antisocial behaviour stop?
Respond to changing circumstances
 Behaviour now punishing, not rewarding
Ruining chances to attain good job, family, education
Able to change
 Less damaged by cumulative & contemporary consequences
 Strong social and educational skills
 They have an option out
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Summary of Moffitt’s theory
Life-course Persistent Antisocial Behaviour
Early
Neuropsychological
Problems
•Difficult infant
•Poor parental
rearing
•Cognitive
difficulties
Childhood
behavioural
problems
Narrowing
options for
change
Adolescent-Limited Antisocial Behaviour
Nondelinquent
childhood
Maturity
gap
Mimic
LifetimePersistent
Antisocial boys
Antisocial
behaviour
unrewarding
with time
Antisocial
behaviour
maintained
across
lifespan
•Prosocial
behaviour again
•Flexible; can
change
•Have social and
educational skills
Patterson’s theory –
What did you read? What do you think?
Cumulative Disadvantage
AGE
Pre-school
Adolescence
Multiple Developmental Pathways
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Research strongly suggests that there are
multiple developmental paths toward
antisocial behavior (rather than the two-path
theory originally developed by Moffitt).
Complex behavior requires complex
explanations
Developmental Antecedents
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Early Temperament
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Child’s emotional predisposition (i.e. stable pattern of
interpreting and responding to environment).
Might include:
 Negative emotionality: negative emotions frequent, intense
and out of proportion to circumstances—anger, sad, anxiety
 Not prosocial: not having sympathy and concern for others
 Being daring: “sensation seeking”, risky activities
 Attention problems: can’t focus attention
 Verbal deficits: less able to listen, problem-solve, limited
expressiveness, lowered reading ability
Early Neuropsychological Difficulties
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E.g. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
Childhood Disorders (DSM-V)
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Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD): Recurrent
pattern of angry irritable mood, argumentative and
defiant behavor or vincitvineness in a child, toward
anyone who is not a sibling lasting at least 6 months
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Loses temper often
Angry and resentful
Easily annoyed or touchy
Argues with authority figures
Refuses to comply with requests from authority figures
or rules
Deliberately annoys others
Blames others for their mistakes or misbehaviors
Is vindictive (at least twice in 6 months)
Childhood Disorders (DSM-V)
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Conduct Disorder (CD) : Persistent, repetative pattern of violating basic rights of others
and/or age-appropriate societal norms or rules, including:
Aggression to People and Animals
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E.g., bullies, threatens, or intimidates
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E.g., sets fires; destroys others property
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E.g., broken into property; lies for gain
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E.g., runs away before age 13; truant before age 13
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Childhood-onset CD
Property destruction
Deceitfulness or theft
Serious violations of rules
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Display at least one symptom before age 10
usually male, aggressive, account for a disproportionate amount of illegal activity
Very stable and persistent antisocial behavior over time
Adolescent-onset CD
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Found in girls or boys
Nothing before age 10
Not as severity or as much psychopathology as the early-onset group
less likely to commit violent offenses or persist as they get older
Childhood Disorders (DSM-V)
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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
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Inattention (6 or more symptoms - easily distracted, can’t
sustain attention, does not appear to listen, loses things, no
follow through)
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Hyperactivity and Impulsivity (6 of more symptoms – leaves
situations where it is not expected, runs or climbs when it is
inappropriate, can’t play quietly, talks excessively, interrups,
hard to wait their turn, “on the go”)
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Occurs in various settings
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Symptoms present before age 12 years
ADHD, a disorder of interpersonal relationships –
ADHD children are perceived as annoying and aversive by
other children (socially rejection)
They have strained family relationships
They struggle in school and have a lower academic
achievement
As adults, they have lower occupational achievement and
more interpersonal conflict
A large number of ADHD children self-report delinquent
behaviours by early adolescence. They are more likely to
develop Conduct Disorder and Antisocial Personality
Disorder as adults
They are more likely to be physically injured
ETIOLOGY of Juvenile Delinquency:
Interaction of multiple risk factors
No single cause; multiple influences (biopsychosocial stressors or
vulnerabilities):
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Psychobiological variables
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Neuropsychological
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violence, poverty, social class
Schools / peers
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Mental illness, physical illness, alcoholism, marital discord
Moral reasoning deficits
Social-cultural
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child rearing, family size, poor supervision, modeling – corporal punishment
Familial traits
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brain deficits, learning disabilities, fetal alcohol syndrome, ADHD
Parent-child interaction
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Genetic, cognitive deficits, temperament, hormones, neurotransmitters
peer pressure, bullying, modeling
Traumatic stress
Abuse
Parent-Child Relationships
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Think of an adult who shows difficulty in establishing warm,
friendly, enduring interpersonal relationships…
Lack the ability to form social attachments, tend to be egocentric
and uncaring.
Temperament contributes, but social conditioning factors are
more important.
Parental influences operates along two dimensions:
 relationship dimension (attachment; arouse hostile
emotions which can lead to antisocial behavior)
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structuring dimension – parents’ role is to teach and instill
prosocial norms, values, beliefs, and skills. Poor modeling,
monitoring, and inconsistent disciplining crucial.
Attachment
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Bond of love between parents and child
pivotal to normal development.
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Failure of attachment to develop in infancy
The rupture of attachment by abandonment,
death, divorce
Contamination of attachment with excessive
anger or anxiety
The atrophy of the bond through neglect
Attachment: Learning to Care
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Look to the family context and attachment to
parental figures as the prototype for all future
social relationships
Degrees of attachment: secure and
independent to insecure and fearful
Bowlby
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separation anxiety
Consistent and nurturing caregiving
Provide the infant the security needed to explore the environment
and develop independence.
Caregiver “safe haven” – first 2 years critical
Attachment theory – Ainsworth pursued Bowlby’s work
Secure attachment (Prefers parent to stranger, Trust, Security)
Ambivalent attachment or Anxious-Resistant (Very distressed when
parent leaves but does not seem soothed by parent when they return,
Wary, Lack of trust)
Avoidant attachment or Anxious-Avoidant (Strangers or parents, who
cares!, Avoids caregivers, Assumed to be a result of neglect or abuse)
Disorganized attachment (Fear and comfort, Cling and avoid, Not sure
how to react or what to do, Assumed to be the result of inconsistent
parenting or abuse)
Attachment & Delinquency
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Disruptions of attachment bond:
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Detachment by parent = length and frequency
lead child to stop attaching (to anyone); avoid any
risk of allowing hearts to be broken again; Moffit’s
LCP offender in the making.
High conflict families with severely stressed
parents = insecure attachment
Attachment
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Successful peer relations related to positive
attachments to parents.
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Moment of detachment – normal, but may give rise to
adolescent limited deliquency.
Attachment to teachers (any significant adult) related
to non-deliquency/attachment.
They seek to attach, must give them the opportunity
(those guys who make prison staff their new family)
Family Factors: Parenting Styles
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The “difficult infant” and parenting (Terrie Moffitt)
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Early behaviour problems can drain parents, and
parents may become less involved in
socializing/teaching child
Behaviour of hyperactive, temperamental children
may be improved under firm, consistent discipline
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However, parents and children often resemble one
another in temperament
The hyperactive, temperamental child under inconsistent,
harsh, impatient parenting may become worse.
What about the parents who do not have the skills or the
resources to raise these children….
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Family Factors: Parenting Style
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The Coercion Model (Gerald Patterson)
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Children learn to use innocuous aversive tactics
(whining, arguing, crying) to terminate conflicts
with family (negative reinforcement)
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Parent makes demand experienced as aversive by
child
Child’s noxious response (whining, yelling) is
experienced as aversive by parent
Parent relinquishes; Child more likely to use similar
tactics in future.
Family Factors: Parenting Style
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Parents/caregivers of delinquency prone children
reinforce such behaviors and not prosocial ones.
Inconsistent, harsh, physical punishment by parents
strongly correlated with delinquency.
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Research concludes that although harsh physical punishment
produces some conformity in the short term, over time it tends
to increase the probability of violent delinquency and crime.
Cycle of violence…aggressive prone kids become
aggressive prone parents.
Poor Disciplinary practices
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Lack of parental supervision (Loeber, 1990)
Inconsistent discipline (McCord, 1979)
Harsh physical punishment (Straus, 1991)
Inconsistent reinforcement & punishment on
the whim of the parent (Bartol, 1999)
Family Factors: Parenting Style
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Emotional abuse and neglect is also important in
the development of delinquency
Maternal (and paternal) warmth contributes to
positive long-term outcomes (think attachment)
“nurturance hypothesis” = considerate attention,
emotional investment, and positive behavioral
management by parents important in the
development of a socially competent and
psychologically healthy child who is likely to be
resistant to antisocial influences.
Family Factors: Child Abuse
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Child Abuse
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Cycle of Violence Hypothesis (Cathy Widom)
 Experiencing violence as a child predisposes the individual to
becoming violent as an adult.
 But most abused children do not become violent
Empirical Support for the Cycle of Violence
 Being a victim of childhood abuse and neglect increases the
likelihood of arrest as a juvenile by over 50%, as an adult by
38%, and for a violent crime by 50%.
 More mental health problems among abused.
 More likely to have attempted suicide and to have met the
criteria for antisocial personality disorder.
 Some research suggests that up to 92% of juvenile female
offenders reported that they had been subjected to some
form of emotional, physical, or sexual abuse. 25% reported
they had been shot or stabbed one or more times.
Poverty/Social Class
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Social class and poverty been major focus in
criminology for over a century.
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Theories predict that lower social classes have greater
likelihood of involvement in criminal behavior.
Little doubt poverty strongly connected to persistent, violent
offending as measured by official, victimization, and self-report
data.
 One of the most robust predictors of adolescent violence for
both males and females
 Predicts being both a victim and offender.
Why? Does being poor cause antisocial behavior?
Poverty/Social Class
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Strong correlation between low SES and delinquency does not
mean that poverty causes or inevitably leads to serious
delinquency.
 Not only inequities in resources, but also:
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discrimination, racism
family disruption
unsafe living conditions
joblessness
social isolation
limited social support
targeted by police; more likely to be incarcerated
Disadvantaged youths more like to have had
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inadequate schooling, higher school dropout rates,
unemployed
carry a firearm
to be victimized, and a witness to a variety of violent acts.