Developmental Explanations

Question 1

Who are the 3 theorists?

Answer 1

• Moffit’s life-course persistent /adolescence-limited theory (1993)
• Thornberry and Krohn’s Interactional theory (2005)
• Elliot, Ageton and Cantor’s Integrated Theory (1979)

Question 2

Describe Moffit’s life-course persistent /adolescence-limited theory (1993)

Answer 2

2 different categories for anti-social people
LCP:
- Starts offending young with petty crimes (e.g. skipping school) and continues into adulthood
- Commits wide range of offences inc. violent ones
- Cognitive deficits, hyperactivity, poor parenting, disrupted families, poverty, low socio-economic statues, bio factors
- Seek out opportunities and victims
- Follow a well-learnt automatic behavioural responses
- Committed to an anti-social lifestyle, no intention of ending

AL:

• Short criminal years, only in adolescence
• Rebellious, non-violent crimes
• Motivated by desire to appear more mature, influenced by peers, teenage boredom
• Often come from normal families/backgrounds
• Easily stop offending due to few cognitive deficits
• Rational decision making e.g. costs vs benefits

Question 3

Describe Thornberry and Krohn’s Interactional Theory (2005)

Answer 3

• Focuses on factors encouraging anti-social behaviour at different ages
• Don’t propose different types of offenders - causes for offending vary depending on what age the behaviour began
• Birth - 6yrs: Neuropsychological deficits, difficult temperament, parenting deficit, structural adversity (shaken baby syndrome)
• 6yrs - 12yrs: Neighbourhood and family factors
• 12yrs - 18yrs: School and peer factors, deviant opportunities, gangs
• 18yrs - 25yrs: Cognitive deficits, low IQ, poor school performance, find it hard to make successful transition into adulthood
• Most distinctive feature = reciprocal causation
• Doesn’t postulate single key construct to offending (children who start early tend to continue because of persistence of neuropsychological and parental deficits
  Intergenerational transmission of behaviour (parental stress, ineffective parenting)

Question 4

Describe theory integration

Answer 4

• Many of traditional theories struggle to predict/explain criminality
• Combines persuasive elements of different theories to form new ones

Question 5

Describe Elliot, Ageton and Cantor’s Integrated Theory (1979)

Answer 5

• Combines elements of strain, social control, social learning theories
• 2 dominant paths:
  1. Social control + social learning
• Social bonds with conventional groups are weak; bonds with delinquents are strong

2. Strain theory + social learning
   - Motivation to commit crime is strong due to strains