06/11/2015-06/15/2015 Flashcards
Behavior in Adulthood
Potential Problems during this time:
- Divorce
- Bankruptcy
- Death of a loved One
- Loss of a job
- Alcoholism
- Drugs
- Loneliness
- Mental Health Issues
Prevalence of Adult Crime
- vast majority of adults never commit crimes
- The news media are full of stories of “desperate virgin offenders” who rob a bank, kill their child, etc.
- The truth: Rare to have totally normative individuals (at all life course stages) suddenly offend.
Criminal Careers in Adulthood
-Adult Criminals typically have made a career out of a crime
• Urban Nomad
- Doesn’t stay put
• Acquisitive Criminal
Robs to maintain basic standard of living
- Money they possess is often consumed recklessly
- Not technically poor, usually bad money managers w/ addictive habits. (Reflects heterotypic Community)
-F-Ups:
Totally Inept (Usually low IQ) Most often arrested & incarcerated
-Dope Fiends/Crack heads:
Steal to support drug habit
-Outlaws:
: Fully & completely internalized criminal lifestyle
-Thieves:
Planned Out; big Pay-off only
-Hustlers:
Crime as a business; All of their energy goes to making ends meet through crime.
Career Criminals
- Commit a large portion of the adult crime rate
- Diversified offending (Diff. Crimes)
- Robbers also engage in theft, drug distribution, and burglary.
- Specialization much more rare
Desistance
- About ½ of adolescence are involved in delinquency at some point during adolescence; Many desist when adulthood arrives
- Many say social ties to additional institutions keep adults more “controlled” (ex: Marriage, job, community, etc.)
-Biology of Young Adult Desistance:
- Marriage corresponds to testosterone drop in male
- Having children also results in testosterone drop in males
- Obviously, brain becomes fully mature, allowing for majority of adults to engage in rational, planned, pro-social behavior
-Mental disorder
=Psychopathology ( a “sickness” of the psyhe/brain)
-In general, diagnoses of mental disorders are made of symptoms that indicate an impediment to normal functioning.:TRUE OR FALSE
TRUE
How The DSM Works:
- Conduct Disorder: (Cluster Pattern of behavior)
- Atleast 3 of the following 13 Present for the Past 6 Months:
- Often lied
- Set things on fire
- Truant
- Destroyed Property
- Broken into house, car, etc…
Resistance to Mental Disorder
Biggest impediment
• Basic rationale of crime and punishment rests on assumptions of free will
• Taking neuroscience into account necessarily complicates legal proceedings
• Advances in neuroscience lead to questions about:
-Criminal Responsibility/Insanity
-Diminished Capacity
-Mitigation
Intervention:
- If roots of persistent, serious crime are at least in part biological (as research shows), successful treatments for it might be analogous to treatments for those w/ mental illnesses (e.g. cognitive behavioral, medication (SSRI’s), etc)
- Resistance to the “overlap” b/w mental disorders and career criminality may be keeping us from preventing/treating crime effectively.
