Quiz 3 - Chapter 4/5 Flashcards
What are correctional programs?
Very specific activities clearly outlined and described in standardized manuals
Who delivers correctional programs?
High trained staff
What are correctional programs designed to do?
Help offenders understand that they are accountable for their criminal behaviour
Target risk factors
Teach skills for managing risk factors
Help change criminal attitudes
Reduce risk that offenders present when they return to society
Static factors
Historical, generally unchanging
Static factors that predict recidivism
Young age
Single marital status
Being male
Static factors that do not predict recidivism
Being a person of colour
Low SES
Dynamic factors
Potentially changeable social and psychological variables
Strongest predictors of recidivism (dynamic factors)
Procriminal attitudes
Antisocial peers
Antisocial personality/pattern
Education/employment
Substance use
Consistently small but significant predictors of recidivism (dynamic factors)
Family/marital problems
Financial problems
Accommodations
Clinical variables and recidivism
Most clinical variables had weak or inconsistent associations with general recidivism
Low intellectual ability
Personal distress
Psychosis
What are the opposite of risk factors?
Protective factors
What are protective factors linked to?
Positive, healthy, noncriminal outcomes
How to assess protective factors?
Structured Assessment of Protective Factors (SAPROF) in the Netherlands
Assesses personal, motivational, and external factors
Does SAPROF work?
Scores from Netherlands and Canada show that it does predict general recidivism
What ages does adolescent offending encompass?
12-17 years old
What is the minimum age in Canada to get charged?
12
Age-crime curve
Global phenomenon: Steep rise in antisocial behaviour during adolescence then gradual decline during adulthood
Explain life course persistent offenders
Behavioural programs begin in daycare and preschool
Many have ADHD, learning disabilities, academic difficulties
Weak bonds to family
Psychopathic traits
Linked to more serious and persistent future antisocial behaviour
Prevalence of life course persistent offenders
Trajectory seen in 3-10% of general population
But responsible for 50-70% of offending
Low-level chronics
Persistent but low levels of antisocial behaviour
As adult, high anxiety, depression, social isolation, work problems
Abstainers
No antisocial acts across the lifespan; well-adjusted, successful
What do biological theories have to say about adolescent offending?
Children with antisocial biological father tend to be more antisocial, even if raised apart
Genetics seem particularly influential regarding link between substance use and delinquency in males
Lower heart rate: Lower fear, need for sensation seeking
What kind of theory is the social-information-processing model?
Cognitive theory
Social-information-processing model
Cognitive deficits and distortions when problem-solving
Attend to fewer social and emotional cues
Hostile attribution bias
Limited problem-solving skills, resort to aggression
Reactive aggression
Proactive aggression
Hostile attribution bias
Tendency to attribute hostile intent to others’ actions
Less likely to notice emotional cues
Reactive aggression
Responding aggressively to perceived threat/frustration
How does the hostile attribution bias related to reactive aggression?
Hostile attribution early in the cognitive process
Proactive aggression
Aggression directed at achieving a goal
Example of proactive aggression
Trouble choosing alternative response to aggression
Social learning theory and aggression
Children may imitate behaviour that receives positive reinforcement
E.g., intergenerational aggression
Patterson’s coercive family process model
Aggressive behaviour among youth develops from a combination of:
Imitation of parents
Reinforcement (e.g., parent stops nagging when child is aggressive)
Inconsistent discipline, inadequate parental supervision
Interparental violence
How are TV and aggression linked?
Observing extreme violence on TV that is rewarded is linked to aggression
How are video games and aggression linked?
Reinforcement for violence in video games
Inconsistently linked to aggression
Desensitization –> Increased aggressive behaviour, cognition, affect, decreased empathy and prosocial behaviour
Name the 5 broad types of risk factors for adolescent offending
Individual
Familial
School
Peer
Community
Name 5 examples of individual factors linked to later offending
Prenatal complications
Birth complications
Low verbal intelligence and late language development
Temperament in infancy
Substance use
Prenatal complications as an individual risk factor linked to later offending
Linked to behavioural problems, including delinquency
E.g., drugs, alcohol, nicotine exposure, mother’s severe malnourishment (very important)
Birth complications as an individual risk factor linked to later offending
E.g., lack of oxygen
When combined with poor bonding to caregiver in first year, 3X more likely to become violent criminals
Temperament in infancy as an individual risk factor linked to later offending
i.e., emotional regulation
e.g., difficult to soothe, hyperactive, attention problems, impulsivity linked to later adolescent offending
Substance use as an individual risk factor linked to later offending
Especially before teen years
Significantly linked to adolescent offending
Name 8 examples of familial factors linked to later antisocial behaviour
Poor parental supervision
Low parental involvement
Parental conflict
Parental aggression
Child abuse, neglect, and maltreatment
Low SES
Large family size
Parental mental health problems
Name 2 school factors linked to later antisocial behaviour
Poor performance, commitment, and educational aspirations
Truancy
Explain social control theory as it relates to school factors linked to later antisocial behaviour
Attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief in educational system are all important protective factors
Truancy as a school factor linked to later antisocial behaviour
Truancy, especially between ages of 12 and 14 is linked to adult offending
What is the most important group of risk factors for later antisocial behaviour in adolescents? How does this relate to childhood?
Peer factors
Even young children who play with aggressive peers are at risk of behavioural problems
Give examples related to peer factors linked to adolescent antisocial behaviour
Peer approval and pressure from, allegiance to, spending time with, delinquent peers
Compounded by problematic/uninvolved parents
Especially gang involvement
Adolescents and gang involvement
Adolescents may be drawn to the socialization in gangs (e.g., protection, means of acquiring material goods, status, excitement, substances, sense of belonging)
Inequalities (e.g., neglect) trigger lack of bonds (e.g., bullying) and desire for recognition and belonging
Name a community factor linked to later offending
Living in a low-income neigborhood
Explain how living in a low-income neighborhood is a risk factor for later offending
Assault during robbery/theft more common among adolescents
Witnessing violence linked to adolescent offending
More access to weapons
More likely to learn delinquent behaviour, associate with delinquent peers, and have delinquent behaviours reinforced
what are the different kinds of protective factors?
individual factors
familial factors
school factors
peer factors
individual protective factors
- intelligence and commitment to education
- exceptional social skills, child competencies, confident perceptions, values, attitudes, beliefs (“likable” children respond positively to good role models)
- sociability, pos. temperament, ability to self-reflect/avoid impulsivity, manage anger, etc
familial protective factors
- supportive relationship w/ adults
- high parental supervision and secure parent-child attachment
- clear and consistent discipline and normalization of prosocial behavior
school protective factors
- commitment to school and academic achievement
- extracurricular activities (sports participation alone not linked to less juvenile activity)
peer protective factors
associating w/ peers who disapprove of antisocial behaviors
children under 12 - beh probs identified where?
at school by teachers, then reported to parents
behavioral problems: 2 categories
internalizing problems: emotional difficulties like anxiety and depression
externalizing problems: delinquency, fighting, bullying, lying, destructive beh
children under 12: common psychiatric diagnoses
- ADHD
- ODD (pattern of negativistic, hostile, defiant beh; 40% develop CD in adolescence)
- CD (repetitive and persistent beh where the rights of others or basic social rules are violated; 50% develop ASPD in adulthood, specifier for children w/ limited prosocial emotions (lack of empathy)
