Transcript chapter_2_powerpoint

ORIGINS OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR:
DEVELOPMENTAL RISK FACTORS
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The life course of all humans follows a
trajectory that may be littered with risk factors
Antisocial
Behavior
Risk
Factor
Risk
Factor
Risk
Factor
Antisocial
Behavior
Antisocial
Behavior
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Individual attributes and developmental social
and family experiences that are believed to
increase the probability that an individual will
engage in persistent criminal behavior
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Psychological
Social
Familial
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Poverty
Early peer rejection
Association with antisocial peers
Inadequate pre-school child care
Inadequate after-school care
School failure
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Single-parent
household
Permissive or lax
parental style
Minimal parental
monitoring
Parental
psychopathology
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Physical and
emotional
abuse/neglect
Domestic violence
Substance abuse
Antisocial siblings
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Cognitive and language deficiencies
Low IQ scores or psychometric intelligence
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Conduct disorder
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The relationship between poverty and
violence is not well understood
Many other variables
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Inadequate schools
Inequities in resources
Discrimination, racism,
Unsafe living conditions
Unemployment
Neighborhood violence
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Peer-rejected children tend to be more
aggressive, argumentative, inattentive, and
disruptive than others, and generally have
poorer social skills
Membership in deviant groups or gangs
encourage and increase the already existing
antisocial patterns in children and adolescents
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Poor-quality child care
◦ Poorer language
◦ Impaired cognitive development
◦ Difficult social and emotional adjustment
Low-income children who experience
high-quality infant and preschool care
show better school achievement and
socialized behavior in later years than
similar children without child-care
experience or with experience in lowerquality care
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Children who are unsupervised after school in
the early elementary grades are at elevated
risk for behavior problems in early
adolescence
◦ Antisocial children seek out niches that involve
association with antisocial peers and environments
with minimal adult supervision
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Early school failure is also linked to antisocial
development and delinquency
reading achievement appears to play a
prominent role in school failure
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Parenting practices
◦ Allowance
◦ Reading together
◦ Serving as home room parent
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Parenting styles
◦ Gestures
◦ Tone of voice
◦ Expression of emotion
Style
Authoritarian
Permissive
Authoritative
Neglecting
Intention
To shape and control child’s
life
No control, few restrictions
Rational, apply reasonable
restrictions
Detached and unengaged in
child’s life
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Enmeshed
◦ Inconsistent and ineffective discipline
◦ Use of coercive punishment for even minor
misbehavior
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Lax
◦ Lack of discipline
◦ Denial about antisocial behavior
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Parents’ awareness of their child’s peer
associates, free-time activities, and physical
whereabouts when outside the home
◦ Strong predictor of antisocial behavior during later
childhood and adolescence
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Antisocial sibling is most influential when
siblings are close in age
Parental depression, alcoholism, violence
related to delinquency
Secure
Child feels secure in parent’s
presence, distressed when leaves but
delighted by parent’s return
Insecure
Anxious/
ambivalent
Child is very distressed by separation
but may be indifferent or hostile when
parent returns
Avoidant
Child is indifferent about both
separation and return
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Affective
◦ Ability to experience another person’s emotions
◦ Deficiencies closely linked to antisocial behavior
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Cognitive
◦ Ability to understand another’s emotions
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Leads to peer rejection and academic
difficulties
◦ Males more difficulty
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Difficulty expressing self may increase
frustration levels
◦ Conflict resolution
◦ Aggressive behavior
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Psychometric approach
Many types of intelligence not measured by
test
Relationship between IQ and school
performance
IQ and ethnicity
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Individual experiences
◦ Rich and varied increase score
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School experiences
◦ Positive increase language skills
◦ Negative stagnate or decrease
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Test
◦ Type, content, situation, examiner
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Many learning disabilities are overdiagnosed
Label that follows individuals through the
educational system
The relationship between delinquency and
learning disability is unclear
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Persistent misbehavior
◦ Stealing, cruelty to others, fighting, lying
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Catch-all category
Signs may occur as early as age three
Often mislabeled
◦ Learning disability or ADHD
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Associated with peer rejection
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Childhood Onset Type
Adolescent Onset Type
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Pattern begins prior to age 10
Prognosis is not good, according to DSM-IV-R
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Absence of any pattern prior to age
More favorable prognosis
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Inattention
◦ Easily distracted
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Impulsivity
◦ Acts before thinking, one activity to another
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Excessive motor activity
◦ Unable to sit still, fidgets, noisy
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Leading psychological diagnosis for
American children
Self-regulation
ADHD and substance abuse
Symptoms of ADHD and antisocial
behavior at young age correlated with
criminal behavior
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Attachment theory
Attention deficit
hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD)
Authoritarian style
Authoritative style
Conduct disorder
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Developmental
pathways
Enmeshed style
Language
impairment
Lax style
Neglecting style
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Parental monitoring
Parental practices
Parental styles
Permissive style
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Psychometric
approach
Psychometric
intelligence
Self-regulation