Ch.2 - Developmental Pathway

Question 1

Examples of social risk factors

Answer 1

• poverty & limited resources
• antisocial peers
• peer rejection
• preschool or school experiences

Question 2

Parental and family risk factors

Answer 2

• faulty or inadequate parenting
• sibling influences
• child maltreatment or abuse

Question 3

Cumulative risk model

Answer 3

Says that exposure to multiple risk factors is most likely to increase the probability of a child, adolescent, or adult developing antisocial behaviour.

• findings show that multiple relative to single risk exposures have worse developmental consequences
• Also looks at protective factors and how they can mitigate the negative influences of risk factors

Question 4

Developmental Cascade Model

Answer 4

• Most prominently introduced by Kenneth Dodge & Ann Musten

This model emphasizes the interaction among risk factors and their effect on outcomes over the course of development.

Question 5

Social environment risk factors

Answer 5

1. Poverty
2. Peer rejection and association with antisocial peers (usually a result of being “different”)
3. Preschool experiences
4. After-school care
5. Academic failure

Question 6

Parental and family risk factors

Answer 6

1. Single-parent households
2. Parental styles and practices (4 types)

• Authoritarian
• Permissive
• Authoritative
• Neglecting

3. Parental monitoring
4. Influence of siblings
5. Parental psychopathology

Question 7

4 types of parental styles

Answer 7

• Authoritarian - Shape, control, and evaluate child’s behaviour to pre-existing standards
• Permissive - Non-punitive, avoid asserting authority
• Authoritative - Rational, open communication, reasonable restrictions
• Neglecting - Detached, little involvement in child’s life

Studies conclude that the neglecting parenting style is most linked to delinquency

Question 8

Psychological risk factors

Answer 8

1. Lack of attachment (John Bowlby’s Attachment theory)
2. Lack of empathy
3. Animal cruelty
4. Cognitive & language deficiencies
5. Intelligence & delinquency (Low IQ leads to delinquency)
6. Disruptive Behaviour Disorders

• Conduct disorder (CD)
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
  Disorder (ADHD)
• Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

Question 9

Dual pathway theory

Answer 9

• created by Terrie Moffitt

This theory talks about two types of offenders:

1. Life-course persistent offenders (this 7% commits 50% of all crime)

• start offending during childhood and continue into adulthood (due to missing out on developing key skills)

2. Adolescent-limited offenders (nearly 90% of offenders)

• start offending during adolescence and stop as adults (may result from delinquent peers)

Question 10

Coercion theory

Answer 10

• developed by Gerald Patterson

Explains the relationship between coercion and likelihood of committing a crime.

*Patterson suggested that parental monitoring behaviours determined a child’s social and academic ability (failure resulted in association with delinquent peers)

2 trajectories:

Early starters: were exposed to inept, coercive, or authoritarian parenting

Late starters: normative delinquents who were particularly prone to the influences of delinquent peers

Question 11

Age-graded theory of informal social control

Answer 11

• created by Sampson and Laub

Says that informal social controls (such as family involvement, work, and school) influence context of behaviour and criminal involvement.

Low social capital = deviant pathways

“Turning points” can fix previous deviant pathways when you become an adult

Question 12

Interactional theory

Answer 12

(Thornberry)

Says that all human behaviour occurs in context of social interaction.

• once involvement in delinquency has begun, interactonal effects are difficult to overcome because this theory says that desisting from crime is a process and takes time

Ex. Strong attachment with parents typically harbour conventional values and beliefs

While…

children without attachment to parents are more likely to strengthen relationships with peers who don’t harbour conventional values and beliefs.

Question 13

Developmental Theory

Answer 13

Says that antisocial behaviour has to develop and is not simply the manifestation of some underlying or primordial condition.

Question 14

Social development model

Answer 14

Claims that causes of delinquency are the outcome of an individual’s journey along pro- and antisocial paths.

• Focuses on preschool, elementary school, middle school, high school

Socializing agents (family, school, peers) teach “good” and “bad” behaviours to children.

• At each developmental stage, children are faced with risk factors and protective factors toward delinquency

The theory views antisocial behaviour and its risks generally and not prescriptively for high-risk or pathological groups.