Week 11; Developmental & Integrated Theories

Question 1

What do Developmental theories study?

Answer 1

• Studies whether an individuals behaviour remains stable or changes over time
• Developmental perspectives are dynamic, Traditional criminological theories are static

Question 2

What do traditional criminological theories assume? and what are the 2 reasons for lack of focus on childhood?

Answer 2

• Assumes contexts have stable and enduring effects on people caught in them
  
  • Pays little attention to what occurs in childhood, rather, often focus on adolescence or adulthood
  • This lack of focus on the childhood is probably a result of two factors:
    
    1. Participation in crime peaks in the teenage years (around 17 or 18), thus the relevance of childhood was not apparent
       
       • It made sense to ask about the teen/juvenile years
    2. Studying juveniles was practical
       - Teens were an ideal population to investigate because it was easy to survey them in school and get self report data

Question 3

What was most early research on adolescents like?

Answer 3

• Most early research on adolescents was cross-sectional
  ○ Does not follow youth over time, but rather studies subjects at one point in time
  - Time and cost-effective
  
  • Cannot consider factors that occur over time

Question 4

What three important contributions did longitudinal studies have by Glueck and Glueck?

Answer 4

This research has three important contributions:
1. Embraced a multifactor approach where the causes of crime were driven by the data, and not a single theory
2. Showed early antisocial behaviour was related to late criminal behaviour and thus criminal involvement was a dynamic developmental process
○ Good deal of stability from youth to early adulthood
○ Criminal involvement is developmental, what happens at one stage in life influences what happens at the next
3. Showed antisocial youths not only are shaped by their circumstances but also impact the social world
- They are architects of their future and can knife off opportunities

Question 5

Developmental (or life-course) theories about childhood?

Answer 5

• Relatively few youths suddenly become serious, chronic offenders during the juvenile years
  
  • A range of conduct problems arise during childhood
  • Childhood antisocial behaviour is perhaps the strongest predictor of involvement in serious juvenile offending

Question 6

What are the three theoretical implications of Developmental (or life-course) theories?

Answer 6

1. Central causes of crime lie in childhood
   
   2. Theories focusing on what happens in the teen years are incomplete, if not incorrect
   3. Link between childhood and later deviance shows a dynamic developmental process
      ○ Referred to as developmental criminology, life - course criminology, or developmental an life course criminology

Question 7

What do Developmental theories attempt to explain?

Answer 7

• Developmental theories of crime attempt to explain why people develop into and out of crime
  ○ Use the term heterogeneity to describe how people vary in their orientation toward criminal conduct

Question 8

In developmental theories what are the 3 initial theories they can be divided into?

Answer 8

1. Theories of continuity
   ○ behaviour is continuous and stable
   
   2. Theories of continuity or change
      ○ Behaviour is either continuous/stable or begins on one pathway and departs, heading in an alternative direction
   3. Theories of continuity and change
      ○ Behaviour is continuous/stable but can also begin on one pathway and depart, heading in an alternative direction

Question 9

What are theories of continuity?

Answer 9

• Individual trait perspectives tend to be theories of continuity
  ○ Argue that once a trait emerges or becomes part of someone’s personality, this trait is hard to get rid of
  ○ The person carries the criminogenic trait across time and social contexts
  - Since the trait is enduring, the involvement in crime is also enduring

Question 10

What does Moffitt say about the teenage years in the age-crime curve?

Answer 10

Moffitt argues the peak of crime in the teenage years seen in the age-crime curve conceals two groups that take different developmental pathways into crime

Question 11

What are Moffitt’s two group taxonomies?

Answer 11

1. Life course persistent offenders (LCPs)
2. Adolescence-limited offenders (Als)
   ○ During adolescence, the age crime curve peaks because both the LCPs and the Als are offending

Question 12

amount of pop. life course offenders?

Answer 12

Make up a small percentage of the population (roughly 5%)

Question 13

According to, Moffitt: “Pathways in the Life Course to Crime”, when do antisocial acts begin for the life course persistent offender?

Answer 13

• Life course persistent offenders start antisocial acts early and continue they waywardness into and beyond adolescence
  ○ Continuity is the hallmark of this group
  ○ Their antisocial behaviour is stable from preschool to adulthood and across social contexts (eg., home, school, work)
  - The underlying antisocial disposition remains the same, but its expression changes form as new social opportunities arise
  □ Bite age 4, skip school at 10, steal at 16, sell drugs at 20, rob at 30, etc

Question 14

What does the life course persistent offender have abnormal with their brain?

Answer 14

• The developmental process begins with neuropsychological deficits
  ○ Normal brain development is disrupted through pre - or postnatal exposure to drugs, poor nutrition, injury, exposure to toxins, lack of stimulation, etc., resulting in psychological deficits
  - Leads to high activity levels, irritability, poor self control, low cognitive ability, etc.
  ○ Verbal and executive functions are particularly important and have been found to be associated with antisocial behaviour across the life course
  - Verbal deficits affect listening, reading, problem solving, expressive speech, writing and memory
  - Executive functioning produces a compartmental learning disability
  □ Includes inattention and impulsivity

Question 15

What does neuropsychological refer to?

Answer 15

• Neuropsychological refers to anatomical structures and physiological processes within the nervous system that influence psychological characteristics such as temperament, behavioural development, and/or cognitive abilities
  ○ Neuropsychological deficits impact a child’s cognitive, motor and/or personality development
  ○ Low birth weights and symptoms of brain dysfunctions have been shown to be related to difficult temperaments at ages one, two, and three and other problems as the child ages (e.g., overactivity, impulsivity, temper tantrums, poor attention, poor school performance), which is linked to even further antisocial behaviour in the future

Question 16

What are neuropsychological deficits related to in life?

Answer 16

• These individual traits/neuropsychological deficits are linked to misconduct and social failure throughout life
  ○ Lock individuals into crime by the way they interact with the social environment to create disadvantage and ensnare individua’s in an antisocial life
  - Often evoke harsh/erratic parenting (evocative interactions) because they are more difficult and have more deficits
  - Interpret ambiguous situations as hostile and people as having harmful intent (reactive interactions)
  - Select and create environments that support their deviant lifestyles (proactive interactions)
  □ Research has shown they associate with, and even marry, deviant others

Question 17

What are those with neuropsychological deficits typical environment?

Answer 17

• In addition to neuropsychological deficits, these children are often not born into intact, wealthy families
  ○ Rather, these vulnerable children are born into disadvantages families
  ○ Often raised in criminogenic environments and see stability in aggression across generations
  ○ Parents and children resemble one another on temperament, personality, and cognitive abilities
  - Parents often lack the physical and psychological resources of handle a difficult child

Question 18

In what two interrelated ways do individual deficits or traits produce stability of offending in LCPs?

Answer 18

1. By the traits’ constant, contemporary effects/consequences
   
   • Carries the same underlying traits from childhood to adulthood
2. By the way the traits foster cumulative continuity
   ○ By leading to lost opportunities, failures, and poor choices that prune away the options for change (snowball effect)
   
   • Support found for both factors

Question 19

What are two sources of continuity that narrow the options for change?

Answer 19

1. Failing to learn conventional prosocial behaviour
   ○ Behaviour repertories consist almost solely of antisocial behaviours
   ○ Miss out on opportunities at each stage of development to acquire and practise prosocial alternatives
   
   2. Becoming ensnared in a deviant lifestyle by crimes consequences
      ○ Often make irrevocable decisions that close off opportunities
      
      • Teenage parenthood, drug/alcohol addiction, patchy work histories, time incarcerated
      • Labeled “bad” and get a bad reputation
        ○ Interventions with LCPs have not been successful
        ○ The theory of LCPs emphasized the constant process of reciprocal interactions between personal traits and the environmental reactions to them

Question 20

What are characteristics of adolesence-limited offenders?

Answer 20

offenders start and finish their criminality during the teenage years
○ Change of discontinue is the hallmark of this group
- Change is often abrupt, starting in adolescence and ending in early adulthood
○ This groups restricts their criminality to the teenage years
○ This is a large group on individuals (almost all adolescents)
○ As youths enter adolescence, their developmental challenge is to overcome the maturity gap created by the mismatch between their adult biological development and modern society’s expectation that they refrain from adult behaviours for several years (eg., sexual activity, smoking, drinking)
○ This gap between social and biological maturity is their motivation for delinquency

Question 21

Delinquency in AL and LCPs

Answer 21

○ Motivation for delinquency is translated into social mimicry
- Youth model/imitate the delinquent conduct of their adolescents, usually the LCPs in their own age cohort or older youths
□ Thus, during adolescence, LCPs often come popular because they are role models for the AL youth
- The ALS often offend in groups, while LCPs will offend alone
- Delinquency is self-reinforcing in that it shows, symbolically, autonomy from adults and maturity
□ Seen as a statement of independence and maturity
- Adulthood beings desistance
□ The maturity gap closes; adult conventional roles become available
□ Consequences of crime escalate and there is a decrease in the appeal and reinforcements of delinquency (eg., can lose job, spouse, kids) - commitment costs

Question 22

According to “Moffitt: “Pathways in the Life Course to Crime” why may adolescents not engage in crime?

Answer 22

• Adolescents who do not engage in crime may not have:
  
  1. Experienced the maturity gap
     ○ Late puberty or early initiation into adult roles
     ○ Lack the motivation for experimenting with crime
  2. Had access to antisocial role models
     ○ Fewer opportunities in rural than urban areas
     ○ Have personalities that make them unattractive to other teens
     
     • Tense, overcontrolled, lack personal skills, timid, etc