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Natural Histories of Delinquency
Abstract
a small group engages in antisocial behavior of one sort or another at every life stage, whereas
... Studies examining Moffitt's (1993) developmental taxonomy across racial/ethnic groups have revealed important limitations in its two-group categorization (Jennings et al., 2010;Nagin, 1999;Nagin & Land, 1993;Park et al., 2010). For instance, Moffitt's (1994) research on Black Americans revealed that early environmental factors, such as limited access to prenatal care and exposure to toxins during gestation, can lead to neuropsychological problems in economically disadvantaged individuals, potentially affecting their prosocial development. Although Moffitt (1994) did not explicitly discuss other racial/ethnic minority populations, the differences in offending trajectories observed indicate the need for a broader application of her framework. ...
... For instance, Moffitt's (1994) research on Black Americans revealed that early environmental factors, such as limited access to prenatal care and exposure to toxins during gestation, can lead to neuropsychological problems in economically disadvantaged individuals, potentially affecting their prosocial development. Although Moffitt (1994) did not explicitly discuss other racial/ethnic minority populations, the differences in offending trajectories observed indicate the need for a broader application of her framework. Several studies have examined the developmental paths of racially/ethnically diverse populations (e.g., Broidy et al., 2015;Bellair et al., 2016;Elliott, 1994;Haynie et al., 2008;Jennings et al., 2013;Markowitz & Salvatore, 2012;Moffitt, 1994;Piquero et al., 2002). ...
... Although Moffitt (1994) did not explicitly discuss other racial/ethnic minority populations, the differences in offending trajectories observed indicate the need for a broader application of her framework. Several studies have examined the developmental paths of racially/ethnically diverse populations (e.g., Broidy et al., 2015;Bellair et al., 2016;Elliott, 1994;Haynie et al., 2008;Jennings et al., 2013;Markowitz & Salvatore, 2012;Moffitt, 1994;Piquero et al., 2002). These studies demonstrate that racial/ethnic groups follow different developmental pathways in offending, arising from distinct social, economic, and environmental experiences. ...
With the notable recent population growth of the Asian population in the US, the need for scholarly attention to offending patterns of this population has correspondingly increased. Utilizing waves of 1 to 4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) (n = 9412), the current study examines the offending trajectories among Asian populations in the US, with particular attention to the distinct experiences and offending patterns between US-born and non-US-born individuals. Employing group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM) and multivariate regression, the study reveals distinct patterns of offending between Asian and non-Asian populations, while highlighting significant variations in offending trajectories between US-born and non-US-born Asian populations. Results indicate that social control factors, such as social bonds and self-control, have varied influences across US-born and non-US-born Asian populations. Overall, the findings point to the importance of considering how distinct institutional adjustment processes and identity negotiations shape offending trajectories among Asian populations in the US. The discussion focuses on how the current study contributes to a deeper understanding of the complexities facing Asian populations in the US, suggesting future studies incorporate institutional adjustment processes to elucidate Asian offending trajectories further.
... In terms of how criminology can benefit from an infusion of life history theory, it is often most instructive to apply evolutionary ideas and principles to existing theoretical approaches on antisocial behavior. One of the most well-known and wellsupported approaches to understanding antisocial behavior over the life course is Moffitt's developmental taxonomy (Moffitt, 1993(Moffitt, , 1994. What follows is a review of Moffitt's key ideas and an example of an application of evolutionary principles to Moffitt's ideas with the recently developed evolutionary taxonomy. ...
... Thus, a brief review is necessary. Moffitt's initial proposition (Moffitt, 1993) and subsequent work (Moffitt, 1994) outlined the main tenets of her theory. Her ideas were driven by a thorough review of the existing empirical literature on antisocial behavior over the life course and a recognition that theoretical siloes and the resulting blind spots had prevented the consilience necessary to provide a sufficient understanding of the observed patterns. ...
... In terms of the taxonomic group that tends to receive the most attention in the literature-LCP offenders-only the developmental environment measures of harshness and unpredictability predicted classification as LCP, relative to AL. This observation conforms not only to Moffitt's (1993Moffitt's ( , 1994 original theoretical predictions it also aligns with much of the empirical literature that has tested her ideas (see Moffitt, 2018). Additionally, it adds further support for the evolutionary taxonomy's assertion that LCP offending patterns are a node in the adaptive strategy repertoire characterized by a fast life strategy. ...
Evolutionary criminology is an approach to the understanding of crime and criminality that is based in part on key aspects of evolutionary psychology. The approach allows for a renewed examination of traditional criminological assumptions and can serve to further enhance theoretical viewpoints on antisocial behavior. The recently developed evolutionary taxonomy theory is an example of such an approach. Relying on the tenets of life history theory, the evolutionary taxonomy was proposed as a theoretical scaffolding for Moffitt's developmental taxonomy of offending. While recent tests of the evolutionary taxonomy have been informative, lacking from the existing literature is an assessment of the extent to which measures of life history theory can predict classification into offending groups based on Moffitt's developmental taxonomy. The current study provided a partial test of classification predictions using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescence to Adult Health study ( n = 12,012). Results of multivariable regression analyses indicated that measures associated with somatic effort and aspects of the developmental environment were predictive of group classification, but measures associated with reproductive effort were not. Implications for evolutionary criminology and traditional criminology are discussed.
... Post-incarceration, mothers are more likely than fathers to be the primary caregivers of their children (Easteal, 2001). The training of communication skills can function as a holistic, protective factor to increase the likelihood of desistance (Polaschek, 2017) and halt intergenerational cycles of maladaptive and offending behaviors (Eddy et al., 2013;Moffitt, 1994). ...
... Those categorised in LCP groups are characterized by antisocial behavior and offending at multiple stages of development throughout the life-course (McGee et al., 2021). These people tend to have experienced dysfunctional parent-child relationships, which can occur due to even very minor neuropsychological deficits (Moffitt, 1994). The dysfunctional family relationships become associated with increased antisocial and decreased prosocial behaviors over time. ...
... The dysfunctional family relationships become associated with increased antisocial and decreased prosocial behaviors over time. Children at the centre of this cycle respond in maladaptive ways to their environment; in turn, the environment provides opportunities for further antisocial behavior and offending, and the cycle is perpetuated (Moffitt, 1994). In Fig. 1, we provide examples of how difficulties in communication competence affected a mother's journey through the system from the point of offending through to release. ...
... In Moffitt's (1994) well-known developmental taxonomy, Moffitt discriminated between two groups of adolescent offenders, namely life-course persistent offenders and adolescent-limited offenders. Life-course persistent offenders were hypothesized to begin to show conduct-related problems during childhood as a result of neuropsychological deficits (e.g., impulse control difficulties) combined with adverse environments (e.g., limited supervision, inappropriate discipline). ...
... 'Life-course persistent' offenders demonstrate a chronic pattern of antisocial behavior that is manifested in various ways across the life course and reflects early difficulties (prenatal/birth complications, disrupted attachments, abusive early environments, neuropsychological problems, difficult temperaments); while 'adolescence-limited' offenders do not exhibit an extensive history of maladaptation, their 'acute' antisocial behavior is believed to primarily reflect 'social mimicry' (Moffitt, 1993) and as such their prognosis is much better as evidenced by an absence of antisocial behavior in adulthood. Moffitt (1994) proposed that this developmental typology is relevant to both boys and girls. With respect to the life-course persistent trajectory, Moffitt and colleagues (e.g., ) asserted boys are more likely than girls to become life-course persistent offenders owing to the fact that they are more likely than girls to be at-risk children (e.g., hyperactive, cognitive deficits, delayed speech, learning disabilities). ...
... There seem to be three complementary or competing perspectives with respect to how protective factors might manifest in terms of the risk of crime and violence in males versus females. The first perspective posits that females exhibit less offending due to differential exposure to risk (i.e., females experience less risk) (Moffitt, 1994;. Conceivably, females may also be exposed to more protective factors. ...
Within the broader field of clinical psychology, there has been a shift from deficit focused assessment toward the practice of including strengths and protective factors in clinical assessment (Tedeschi & Kilmer, 2005). It is generally agreed-upon that comprehensive psychological assessments need to include protective factors/strengths (Snyder, Ritschel, Rand, & Berg, 2006; Rashid & Ostermann, 2009). Turnell and Edwards (1999) lamented the fact that focusing solely on risk factors is “rather like mapping only the darkest valleys and gloomiest hollows of a particular territory” (p. 49). Ultimately, the purpose of risk assessments should be to inform risk management, not simply for the prediction of future offending (Hart & Logan, 2011). Additionally, risk management should do more than just reduce or eliminate an individual’s risk factors; it should also build on an individual’s existing strengths as well as aim to develop new protective factors (de Vries Robbé & de Vogel, 2013). Accordingly, scholars have called for the inclusion of protective factors in risk assessment measures (Rogers, 2000; de Ruiter & Nicholls, 2011).
... Though life course and developmental work has been limited in its ability to explain or address racial and ethnic differences in criminal careers, one notable exception to this is Moffitt's [68] explanation of how race and ethnicity, particularly in the American context, may increase the prevalence of both life course persistent and adolescent limited offenders. In her discussion, she points to a number of risk factors that have been cited in the large body of work which tries to understand racial and ethnic differences in offending. ...
... In her discussion, she points to a number of risk factors that have been cited in the large body of work which tries to understand racial and ethnic differences in offending. This work argues that contextual factors such as institutionalized racism, segregation, and urban inequality [54,59,68,78,91,104] and accompanying high levels of poverty, unemployment, and concentrated disadvantage [62,71,80,87,88] interact with other risk factor domains (e.g., individual, family, peer, and school) to create differential patterns of offending among racial and ethnic minorities. From Moffitt's perspective, the impact of these contextual factors begins at a young age with poor nutrition and exposure to toxins beginning in infancy, which places youth at risk for nervous systems problems that Moffitt states have been Bshown to interfere with prosocial child development ( [68]:39).T he racial segregation and concentrated disadvantage associated with minority neighborhoods is also believed to lead to blocked opportunities as well as social isolation and street socialization [91]. ...
... This work argues that contextual factors such as institutionalized racism, segregation, and urban inequality [54,59,68,78,91,104] and accompanying high levels of poverty, unemployment, and concentrated disadvantage [62,71,80,87,88] interact with other risk factor domains (e.g., individual, family, peer, and school) to create differential patterns of offending among racial and ethnic minorities. From Moffitt's perspective, the impact of these contextual factors begins at a young age with poor nutrition and exposure to toxins beginning in infancy, which places youth at risk for nervous systems problems that Moffitt states have been Bshown to interfere with prosocial child development ( [68]:39).T he racial segregation and concentrated disadvantage associated with minority neighborhoods is also believed to lead to blocked opportunities as well as social isolation and street socialization [91]. These factors can be particularly harmful from a life course perspective because they block maturational reform [28] and result in more time spent in the Bmaturity gap^ [68]. ...
PurposeOne underrepresented area of research within the developmental and life course framework is how criminal careers vary across racial and ethnic lines. Similarly, little is known about how the processes surrounding leaving a youth gang differ based on the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities. This manuscript will help fill this gap in both bodies of literature by examining differences in push and pull motivations for gang desistance across black, Hispanic, and white youth who reside in seven different cities across the USA. Methods
The mixed-method analysis relies on grounded theory techniques to identify themes in the qualitative interviews as well as provides a quantitative comparison of gang desistance motivations. ResultsBlack youth were least likely to report pulls associated with prosocial attachments and were also least likely to report being disillusioned with intragang relationships. Hispanic youth most commonly reported pulls associated with parental encouragement and experiencing official sanctions and pushes centered on direct and vicarious violent experiences. White youth most commonly reported pulls associated with having a significant other and pushes including feelings of disillusionment with intragang relationships. Conclusion
While there is evidence that street socialization and social isolation uniquely impact the gang desistance decisions of black gang youth, these differences might not be enough to justify race-specific intervention programs.
... Other common risk factors include cognitive abilities (Moffitt, 1993(Moffitt, , 1997Piquero & White, 2003;Wolfgang, Figlio, & Sellin, 1972), delinquent peers (Dong & Krohn, 2016;Warr, 2002), family structure factors (Besemer & Farrington, 2012;Pires & Jenkins, 2007;L. G. Simons, Su, & Simons, 2013;Yonai, Levine, & Glicksohn, 2015), victimization (Daigle, Cullen, & Wright, 2007;Kim & Lo, 2015;Lauritsen & Laub, 2007), race/ethnicity (Bradshaw, Schaeffer, Petras, & Ialongo, 2010;Evans et al., 2016;Park et al., 2008), and gender (Giordano et al., 2002;Krohn, Hall, & Lizotte, 2009;Moffitt, 1994;Silverthorn & Frick, 1999). ...
... Outside of lifecourse research, there is substantial support for offending and criminality to be vastly different for males and females (Giordano et al., 2002;Heimer & De Coster, 1999). Moffitt (1994) argued that males would be more likely to be life-course-persistent offenders than females. Silverthorn and Frick (1999) used this argument by Moffitt (1994) but furthered the conversation to suggest that a delayed onset of delinquency would occur among females. ...
... Moffitt (1994) argued that males would be more likely to be life-course-persistent offenders than females. Silverthorn and Frick (1999) used this argument by Moffitt (1994) but furthered the conversation to suggest that a delayed onset of delinquency would occur among females. They suggested that females in the late-onset group were mimicking the behaviors of the early onset male group but at an older age (Silverthorn & Frick, 1999). ...
Using data from the Family and Community Health Survey, the current study explores developmental pathways from age 11 to 24 of African American males and females. This study describes the number and type of trajectories of offending for male and female African Americans, as much research in the past on trajectories has focused on White and/or male samples. We also investigate predictors of offending for the females both between and within trajectory groups. Results indicated that females who experienced higher levels of racial discrimination and greater parental hostility were more likely to be in a late bloomer group, compared with the low-level group. In addition, higher levels of racial discrimination and deviant peer affiliation were predictive of more offending.
... On the other hand, ALs commit a variety of delinquent acts as a result of what Moffitt refers to as the maturity gap, or the pressure a juvenile experiences as a result of reaching biological maturity but not yet being granted full social maturity. While Moffitt argues that most ALs will desist upon entering legitimate adult roles, others may continue offending as a result of experiencing the "economic maturity gap" [29]. Specifically, if ALs find themselves unemployed, in debt, and/or in a low-status job, this may make it difficult for them to achieve financial autonomy. ...
... Of greater interest to this study, ALs do not suffer such deficits at an early age and behave relatively prosocially until they reach adolescence. 1 While Moffitt [30] has discussed the possibility of another distinct offending group, childhood-limited offenders, the current study relies upon the original conceptualization of the taxonomy as this new group is of less direct relevance to our focus. 2 Although Moffitt has extended [29], clarified [39], and revised [30] her original theory, the specific hypothesis we test emanates from her 1993 and 1994 works and has not been altered by these more recent publications. ...
... In sum, there appears to be some evidence to suggest that snares delay desistance among ALs. However, Moffitt [29] also hypothesized another possible mechanism that could help explain continuity among ALs-the economic maturity gap-the focus of our study and which is described in further detail below. ...
Purpose
In the study of criminal careers, factors that predict continuity in offending are of importance to both theory and policy. One recently advanced hypothesis is Moffitt’s “economic maturity gap,” which argues that some adolescence-limited offenders may be mired in a poor economic situation. As only one study to date has examined this hypothesis, the current study seeks to extend this line of research by assessing the relationship of the economic maturity gap on later offending.
Methods
Using data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, three distinct operationalizations of the economic maturity gap are used to predict continued offending into mid-adulthood.
Results
Findings support the hypothesis that adolescence-limited males who experience this gap in late adolescence are more likely to continue offending into adulthood.
Conclusions
Experiencing poor economic circumstances helps to maintain offending into mid-adulthood.
... A substantial body of literature supports the notion that antisocial behaviour broadly follows one of two developmental courses from adolescence into adulthood (Caspi & Moffitt, 1995;Moffitt, 1990Moffitt, , 1993Moffitt, , 1994Moffitt, , 1997Moffitt, , 2006. Moffitt (1993) suggests that many people behave antisocially in adolescence, but in only a subsetknown as life-course persistent offendersdoes this behaviour become stable and persistent. ...
... First, being male increased the odds of recidivism. Moffitt et al. (2001) found that males are 10-15 times more likely to follow a life-course persistent pattern of offending compared to females, largely the result of biopsychosocial interactions found more commonly in male children (Moffitt, 1994). Second, participating in structured programmes designed to address risk factors lowered the odds of recidivism. ...
The reliable identification of those offenders at greatest risk of post-release recidivism is critically important given the emotional and financial costs associated with offending behaviour. The aim of the current study was to synthesise the available literature on risk predictors to identify which factors are predictive of recidivism in adult offenders, in the four years following release from custody. After systematically reviewing the literature and selecting those at least risk of bias, 43 high quality studies were subjected to meta-analysis. Sufficient data pertaining to 21 factors were available. Consistent with Bonta and Andrews [(2017). The psychology of criminal conduct (6th ed.). Routledge], prominent factors associated with the ‘central eight’ risk domains for general recidivism, particularly those indicative of antisocial potential, produced the largest effect sizes. These included factors such as an extensive criminal history (e.g. number of previous incarcerations), rule violations whilst under supervision, and holding procriminal attitudes. Overall, static risk factors were superior to dynamic in predicting recidivism. We explore these findings in the context of the limitations of the risk predictor literature and argue that ongoing behavioural monitoring is a promising means of identifying real-time changes in the antisocial potential of prisoners released to the community .
... Yet, criminal career frameworks, save one (Moffitt, 1994), have failed to bring either race or ethnicity to the fore to account for these differences. ...
... While the literature related to developmental and life course perspectives continues to grow, a noted limitation concerns the paucity of attention to racial and ethnic differences in offending over time. Although race and ethnicity emerge as central correlates of crime, existing dynamic explanatory models, aside from one (e.g., Moffitt, 1994), fail to account for the disproportionate representation of minorities in offending (e.g., Greene & Gabbidon, 2012;Leiber & Peck, 2015;Walker et al., 2012). The underlying assumption, thus, is that the factors associated with criminal development regarding onset, persistence, and desistance are equivalent for Whites and minorities. ...
... Moreover, different pathways seem to emerge; HPA-hyperactivity and early adversity seem particularly relevant for youth without callous-unemotional (CU) traits, and a severe subgroup (HPA hypoactivity and CU traits) exists for whom antisocial behavior develops in the absence of childhood adversity. The HPA activation has limited explanatory power in adult-onset antisocial behavior (Hawes et al., 2009), a pathway thought to be particularly relevant to women (e.g., Moffitt, 1994;Odgers et al., 2008). In sum, as researchers have begun to document the importance of gene-environment interactions, the picture seems to gain increasing complexity (Bezdjian et al., 2011;Caspi et al., 2002;Moffitt, 2005;Taylor & Kim-Cohen, 2007). ...
... A consideration of the developmental literature suggests that the mechanisms or pathways leading to conduct problems (among children and adolescents) and personality dysfunction (among adults) are invariant across gender but are likely acting on vulnerabilities that differ across sex (for a review, see Fontaine, Carbonneau, Vitaro, Barker, & Tremblay, 2009). For example, when discussing the role of gender in one of the most prominent theories of the developmental course of antisocial behavior; Moffitt (1994) asserted that females on the life-course persistent (LCP) pathway have the same pattern of childhood social, familial‚ and neurodevelopmental deficits that have been documented among their male LCP counterparts (also see Odgers et al., 2008). Given the lower rates of neurodevelopmental deficits in girls, however, the process of cumulative continuity operates to ensure that fewer females than males are on the LCP pathway Moffitt, Caspi, Rutter, & Silva, 2001;Odgers et al., 2008). ...
This chapter examines the utility of, and evidence for, extending psychopathy, both as a construct and as a risk assessment tool, to female populations. It discusses gender differences in relation to psychopathy and other personality disorders, risk exposure, and gender‐role socialization to understanding the expression of psychopathy among females. Research points to important gender differences in manifestations of personality pathology and personality traits; it provides insight into how biological and psychosocial gender differences might alter the appearance of psychopathic characteristics in females versus males. The chapter reviews the body of research assessing psychopathy in females via the psychopathy checklist‐revised and its descendants, with an eye toward detecting measurement bias and the potential for construct drift. Finally, it considers whether psychopathy may be a useful risk marker for serious forms of aggression and antisocial behavior among women and girls, and whether such information can inform decision‐making in clinical‐forensic settings.
... Moreover, different pathways seem to emerge; HPA-hyperactivity and early adversity seem particularly relevant for youth without callous-unemotional (CU) traits, and a severe subgroup (HPA hypoactivity and CU traits) exists for whom antisocial behavior develops in the absence of childhood adversity. The HPA activation has limited explanatory power in adult-onset antisocial behavior (Hawes et al., 2009), a pathway thought to be particularly relevant to women (e.g., Moffitt, 1994;Odgers et al., 2008). In sum, as researchers have begun to document the importance of gene-environment interactions, the picture seems to gain increasing complexity (Bezdjian et al., 2011;Caspi et al., 2002;Moffitt, 2005;Taylor & Kim-Cohen, 2007). ...
... A consideration of the developmental literature suggests that the mechanisms or pathways leading to conduct problems (among children and adolescents) and personality dysfunction (among adults) are invariant across gender but are likely acting on vulnerabilities that differ across sex (for a review, see Fontaine, Carbonneau, Vitaro, Barker, & Tremblay, 2009). For example, when discussing the role of gender in one of the most prominent theories of the developmental course of antisocial behavior; Moffitt (1994) asserted that females on the life-course persistent (LCP) pathway have the same pattern of childhood social, familial‚ and neurodevelopmental deficits that have been documented among their male LCP counterparts (also see Odgers et al., 2008). Given the lower rates of neurodevelopmental deficits in girls, however, the process of cumulative continuity operates to ensure that fewer females than males are on the LCP pathway Moffitt, Caspi, Rutter, & Silva, 2001;Odgers et al., 2008). ...
... D. Yoon, et al. Children and Youth Services Review 105 (2019) 104446 adolescence has been reported in prior empirical studies (Dong & Krohn, 2016;Lacourse et al., 2003;Vitaro et al., 2005) as well as theoretical literature (Moffitt, 1994). According to Moffitt's (1994) theory of delinquency, the prevalence of antisocial behavior changes markedly across the lifespan, with an overwhelming (e.g. ...
... Children and Youth Services Review 105 (2019) 104446 adolescence has been reported in prior empirical studies (Dong & Krohn, 2016;Lacourse et al., 2003;Vitaro et al., 2005) as well as theoretical literature (Moffitt, 1994). According to Moffitt's (1994) theory of delinquency, the prevalence of antisocial behavior changes markedly across the lifespan, with an overwhelming (e.g. approximately tenfold), yet temporary, increase during adolescence (i.e., adolescence-limited delinquents). ...
Deviant peer affiliation has long been recognized as a risk factor in determining adolescent further development, but scarce research has examined the developmental trajectories of deviant peer affiliation in at-risk youth. Guided by developmental psychopathology perspectives and differential association theory, this study aimed to: 1) identify heterogeneity in growth trajectories of adolescent deviant peer affiliation; 2) examine whether the growth trajectories differ by types of child abuse; and 3) investigate how the growth trajectories were associated with adolescent substance use. Drawing from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN), youth who completed at least one of the age 12, 14, and 16 assessments were examined. Latent class growth analyses indicated three distinctive developmental trajectories of deviant peer affiliation from age 12 to 16: a slightly ascending trajectory class (82.9%); a steep ascending trajectory class (12.9%), and a declining trajectory class (4.2%). Youth who had been emotionally abused were more likely to be in the steep ascending trajectory class, while sexual abuse predicted membership in the declining trajectory class. Additionally, the patterns of deviant peer affiliation trajectories predicted later adolescent substance use: youth who were in the steep ascending trajectory class were more likely to use alcohol and marijuana compared to youth in the other classes. However, tobacco use indicated a slightly different pattern: youth in both the steep ascending and the declining classes had higher likelihoods of tobacco use, compared to those in the slightly ascending trajectory class. Results suggest preventive interventions to improve positive peer relationships.
... As noted by Moffitt (1994), even early in life, blacks are disproportionately affected by risk factors for impaired neuropsychological functioning (e.g., insufficient prenatal care, poor infant nutrition). These individual risk factors are often compounded by differential exposure to neighborhood disadvantage and associated constructs (e.g., poverty, sustained stress). ...
... While Moffitt (1990) and others (Marsh & Blair, 2008;McNulty et al., 2012) have found links between antisocial behavior and non-executive functioning processes, executive functioning is considered the best-replicated cognitive correlate of antisocial behavior (Morgan & Lilienfeld, 2000;Ogilvie et al., 2011). Executive dysfunction can interfere with an individual's ability to control their own behavior and thus may result in maladaptive behaviors (Moffitt, 1993(Moffitt, , 1994 and inappropriate emotional responses, such as aggression, reward seeking, and inappropriate sexual behavior (Williams, Suchy, & Rau, 2009). The relationship between neuropsychological functioning and antisocial behavior is not moderated by age, sex, or ethnicity (Bellair, McNulty, & Piquero, 2016;Morgan & Lilienfeld, 2000), however, one finding (Bellair and McNulty, 2010) suggests that the relationship may be moderated by neighborhood. ...
Impaired neuropsychological and cognitive functioning are well-understood to be risk factors for antisocial behavior. There are, however, gaps in our knowledge of the etiology and effective treatment of neuropsychological and cognitive deficits. My dissertation examines these questions in a series of three papers. The first paper proposes a serial mediation model wherein neighborhood disadvantage and subsequent impaired neuropsychological functioning represent a partial explanation of the race-antisocial behavior relationship. In a community sample of male and female young adolescents, the hypothesized sequential path accounted for 10.8% of the relationship between race and antisocial behavior. The second paper examines the relationship between sleep and antisocial behavior, which has primarily been examined via correlational or extreme sleep deprivation studies. Using National Incidence-Based Reporting System and city-reported data, this paper exploits the natural experiment of daylight saving time (DST) to examine the effects of a very mild change in sleep on assault rates. The Monday directly following the advent of DST was associated with 3% fewer assaults as compared to the Monday a week later, which we hypothesize may be the result of fatigue. In contrast, we saw 3% more assaults following the return to standard time. The final paper examines a sample of incarcerated male adolescents longitudinally to test whether incarceration results in impaired cognition, and if so, whether a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy/Mindfulness intervention can protect against such impairments. Performance on three measures derived from an emotional go/no-go task significantly worsened from baseline to follow-up, however, two marginally significant time x group interactions suggest mindfulness may be potentially effective in buffering the adverse effects of imprisonment. While many scholars have postulated about adverse psychological effects of incarceration, this is one of the first papers to empirically document such effects. In totality, the proposed dissertation is intended to improve our understanding of the association between cognition and antisocial behavior through examining external and environmental influences on the brain. From a theoretical perspective, findings highlight the need to explore environmental correlates of neuropsychological and cognitive deficits. From an applied and policy perspective, findings indicate potential avenues for individual-level treatment that may positively impact behavior.
... Similar results were found for verbal abuse against mothers (91% vs. 44%) and fathers (84% vs. 43%). Pagani et al.'s (2003Pagani et al.'s ( , 2004Pagani et al.'s ( , 2009) community sample results are generally consistent with Moffitt's (1994) broader developmental taxonomy of antisocial behavior, which includes the perpetration of aggressive and violent behaviors. Moffitt proposed two antisocial trajectories that vary in the origin and course of behavior and are differentially associated with negative consequences-that is, violence, mental health, physical health, and economic difficulties. ...
... Therefore, future research would be remiss to limit the investigation of CPA to those under the age of 18 years, especially considering that the available community (Peek et al., 1985) and offender research (Snyder & McCurley, 2008) suggests that risk factors and patterns of abuse may evolve with age. Future research should investigate whether there are unique trajectories of CPA (e.g., AL and LCP) that differ in their risk factors and future consequences, as suggested by literature on general antisocial behavior (Moffitt, 1994). ...
This paper seeks to integrate 60 years of diffuse research on children who abuse their parents. Variation in samples, definitions, and measurement approaches have contributed to a complex literature on child-to-parent abuse (CPA), marked by variance in prevalence estimates and research findings. This review is structured according to Bronfenbrenner's (1979) nested ecological model of development. This model provides a useful multifactor framework to interpret and synthesize findings and has been applied to similar areas of research—including intimate partner violence and general antisocial behavior. This review also considers how various risk markers associated with CPA may interact with each other to produce aggressive behavior.
... Otras teorías relacionan los cambios cognitivos, y la identidad delictiva Shover (1995), Maruna (2001). Gove (1985) y Moffit (1994) señalan factores psicobiológicos y de personalidad en la persistencia en el delito. Lebel y otros (2008) señalan la importancia de factores personales como las creencias, los valores familiares, … on Laub & Sampson, (2007) combinan factores personales, añaden la importancia de "echos relevantes" (bodas, defunciones, el nacimiento de un hijo…) y la construcción de una narrativa desistente. ...
La finalidad del internamiento penitenciario es la rehabilitación y reinserción, como medidas efectivas de prevención del delito. El sistema establece un modelo de retorno a la comunidad progresivo (3er grado y Libertad condicional) que solo alrededor de un 20% de los/as penados/as cumplen. Así pues, era necesario desarrollar un plan de reinserción postpenitenciaria, independiente del grado de clasificación.
En el período 2017-2020 se ha elaborado de forma participativa entre expertos de Servicios penitenciarios, del Centro de Iniciativas para la Reinserción social (CIRE) y de las entidades del tercer sector colaboradoras un plan de apoyo comunitario, que propone un conjunto de medidas aplicables desde el proceso de ingreso penitenciario hasta la excarcelación, orientadas a mejorar la transición prisión-comunidad.
Para ello se llevó a cabo una revisión documental internacional, un estudio de 25 personas excarceladas, y reuniones de expertos, que permitieron identificar las 7 áreas de mayor necesidad de intervención: residencia, documentación, ayudas económicas, salud, formación y trabajo, red familiar y social, discapacidad y situación jurídico-penal. Se construyeron mapas de procesos, propuestas de nuevos protocolos, procedimientos, coordinaciones interinstitucionales…
El resultado nos permite reforzar el actual modelo de intervención centrado en la etiología delictiva, con fuerte componente psicológico y conductual con un plan de intervención socioeducativo que hace hincapié en el empoderamiento personal y la red de apoyo social comunitaria, incorporando una necesaria mirada de género y una atención especial para los más jóvenes.
... Indeed, Moffitt (2018) went on to state that the pathological, and therefore long-lasting, behavior of LCPs contrasts with those whose poor behavior is situational and therefore short-term (Moffitt, 1994), and she terms this second cluster 'adolescence-limited' offenders. Here, early offending is related to the strain between fast-growing physical capability, desires, peer influence and low social access to adult behaviors (McGee & Moffitt, 2019). ...
Longitudinal investigations of associations between health and offending are rare. Studies which have investigated
this relationship principally focus on mental health within samples of incarcerated offenders. This article
provides a review of the current evidence base on health and offending, focusing on criminological theories
seeking to explain the health-crime relationship and insights from Public Health and Social Epidemiology. The
evidence reviewed here suggests that the antisocial lifestyles of offenders when outside secure environments pose
a significant risk to their physical health. It is likely that the antisocial lifestyles of offenders damage their health
over time, and several criminological, epidemiological and medical theories are discussed to explain these links.
It is clear from this body of research that community offenders form an under-researched group of offenders, with
methodologically limited research conducted to date. Future directions are discussed which may facilitate the
production of further robust evidence, in light of the complex causal and bi-directional nature of the relationship
between health and offending. These suggestions should be viewed as a future public health challenge and should
inform targeted interventions.
... Children of conduct disorder are aggressive, glutting, cruel and also defined as careless and thoughtless about social norms. It is that type of antisocial behaviors such as exploitation in universal, damage, theft, and cruelty [2]. ...
OBJECTIVE: To assess the association of prevalence of conduct disorder with social exclusion among children.
... During this time, youth experiment with identities, expand their social ties, and lay the foundation for future pursuits. A normative manifestation of this change and experimentation involves engaging in offending (Moffitt, 1994;Rutter et al., 1998). For instance, 95% of youth in the Oregon Youth Study reported at least one offending behavior from early adolescence into young adulthood (Wiesner & Capaldi, 2003). ...
Adolescent involvement in risky behavior is ubiquitous and normative. Equally pervasive is the rapid decline in risky behavior during the transition to adulthood. Yet, for many, risky behavior results in arrest. Whereas prior research finds that arrest is associated with an increased risk of experiencing a host of detrimental outcomes, less understood is the impact of an arrest on the developmental course of offending compared to what it would have looked like if no arrest had occurred—the counterfactual. This study examines the developmental implications of an arrest early in the life course. The sample (N = 1293) was 37% female, 42% non-white, with a mean age of 13.00 years (SD = 0.82, range = 12–14) at baseline and followed annually for 15 years. Analyses combine propensity score matching and multilevel modeling techniques to estimate the impact of early arrest (i.e., 14 or younger) on the development of offending from adolescence into adulthood. The results indicate that early arrest alters the developmental course of offending in two primary ways. First, early arrest heightens involvement, frequency, and severity of offending throughout adolescence and into early young adulthood even after controlling for subsequent arrests. The detrimental influence of early arrest on the developmental course of offending is found regardless of gender or race/ethnicity. Second, even among youth with an early arrest, offending wanes over time with self-reported offending among all youth nearly absent by the mid- to late-twenties. The findings advance understanding of the developmental implications of early arrest beyond typical and expected offending.
... This recent work has implications for the theorizations behind the health-offending relationship and the various personality, environmental and neuropsychological factors influencing 'offending', that may be significant across the life course. Moffitt (2018) goes on to state that the pathological, and therefore long-lasting, behaviour of LCPs contrasts with those whose poor behaviour is situational and therefore short-term (Moffitt, 1994), and she terms this second cluster 'adolescence-limited' offenders. Here, early offending is related to the strain between fast-growing physical capability, desires, peer influence and low social access to adult behaviours (McGee & Moffitt, 2019). ...
Longitudinal investigations of associations between offending and health are rare. Studies which have investigated this relationship principally focus on mental health within samples of incarcerated offenders. Therefore, the physical health of offenders outside secure settings, henceforth ‘community offenders’, form an under-researched and potentially vulnerable group. To address the limited knowledge on the relationship between community offenders and health, this thesis utilised access to a unique prospective longitudinal study, The Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD), and conducted two global systematic reviews and meta-analyses. This aim of this thesis is to use these data sources to longitudinally, systematically, and meta-analytically investigate to what extent community offenders have poorer physical health across the life-course and die prematurely compared to non-offenders. Chapter 1 provides an introduction together with a comprehensive review of the current evidence and theorizations behind the health-crime relationship. This highlights the limitations and gaps in the literature to date and sets out how this thesis seeks to contribute to this debate. Within Chapter 2, the first central focus, in contrast to the conviction and risk factor analyses previously performed, is on temporary versus persistently antisocial persons, based on three offending trajectories (see: Moffitt, 1993; Jolliffe, Farrington, Piquero, McLeod, & Van de Weijer, 2017b): Life-Course-Persistent, Adolescence-Limited, and Late-Onset offenders. These three typologies constitute qualitatively distinct types of person and their different offending pathways may bear differential risks for adult health. By using data from the CSDD, the new approach in this thesis investigates the longitudinal impact of criminal behaviour on physical health problems in self-reports and General Practitioner (GP) data by testing the following hypothesis: individuals who commit offences earlier in their lives and have prolonged criminal careers will suffer from greater physical health problems than individuals who have short criminal careers. These early onset individuals, it is further hypothesised, will also have greater odds of injury and hospitalization than Late-Onset offenders, who in turn will have greater odds than Non-offenders. These CSDD longitudinal analyses found that, when considering organic illnesses (respiratory tract, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, skin, allergic, gastrointestinal and infectious illnesses) and hospitalizations (the number of hospital visits), the impact of offending on health becomes more serious if offending persists beyond adolescence. The second focus of Chapter 2 was to conduct further analyses investigating the relationship between psychosocial risk factors at age 8-10, antisocial personality (ASP) at ages 18, 32 and 48, and poor physical health (based on self-reports and GP records). These analyses found that high ASP scores at ages 18, 32 and 48 were related to a high prevalence of hospitalization. They also found that, according to GP records, high ASP scores at age 32 were related to poor physical health, and high ASP scores at age 48 were related to more mental illness and disabling medical conditions. These three CSDD analyses also highlight age-specific health implications related to the ages at which offenders begin and end their delinquent behaviour. Unfortunately, these findings could not be supplemented through a systematic review and meta-analysis, due to the paucity of existing studies. The worst consequence of poor physical health is premature mortality, so this element of the health-crime relationship was subsequently investigated in Chapter 3. In Chapter 3, a systematic review and meta-analysis sought to establish whether community offenders die prematurely compared to non-offender community and population comparison samples. Thirty-six studies met the inclusion criteria (N= 1,116,614). Premature mortality is a significant issue for non-incarcerated offenders in general (OR= 3.42), and for ex-prisoners in particular (OR= 4.51). Offenders were more likely to die from unnatural violent causes (OR= 3.97) and natural causes (OR= 2.06) than non-offenders, with a meta-regression revealing that time at risk was not a significant factor (z= -0.01, p= 0.12). These results suggest that the rates of premature mortality previously found for offenders do not just reflect the impact of mental illness on these individuals, but rather that offending and its correlates may have a significant physiological impact on the body. Suicide was of particular interest when considering the causes of premature mortality in community offenders, one of the most prominent causes of death in offenders (Fazel, Benning, & Danesh, 2005) and males globally (WHO, 2018). A further systematic and review and meta-analysis was therefore conducted to investigate this significant element of the health-crime relationship. In Chapter 4, a second systematic review and meta-analysis sought to establish whether community offenders were more likely to commit suicide compared with community and general population comparison groups. Fifteen studies met the inclusion criteria (N= 602,347) and highlight that non-incarcerated offenders are significantly more likely to commit suicide compared with non-offenders (OR= 4.54), with time at risk being a non-significant factor. Ex-prisoners had a high likelihood of suicide (OR= 4.18), but not as high as offenders who had not been incarcerated (OR= 7.62). Chapter 5 presents limitations concerning the studies conducted in Chapters 2, 3 and 4, in addition to providing recommendations for future research. Although this thesis could not provide directional or causal conclusions, Chapter 6 argues that the evidence provided suggests that the antisocial lifestyles that offenders lead when out of secure environments pose a significant risk to physical health. It is likely that the antisocial lifestyle of offenders causes processes which damage their health over time, and several criminological, epidemiological and medical theories are discussed to explain these links. Overall, community offenders form a vulnerable group who require targeted interventions to reduce the incidence of poor physical health, mortality and suicide across the lifespan. Yet, the prior research and literature reviewed within this thesis demonstrates that community offenders form an under-researched group, with methodologically limited research conducted to date. Until there is further understanding of the health-crime relationship, the nature of these interventions remains impossible to comment upon. Future directions for new research are discussed which aim to produce further robust evidence on the relationship between community offenders and poor health, together with the differences between individual prospective longitudinal work and population level meta-analytic findings. These approaches should seek to establish causality and directionality of relationships and inform the design of future interventions. The findings of this thesis, with respect to the health-crime relationship, should be viewed as a future public health challenge and continue to inform the evidence from which targeted interventions can be developed, with the aspiration of improving the health and life chances of community-based offenders.
... Several studies have explored the role of race/ethnicity on longitudinal offending patterns, which may condition patterns in important ways (Moffitt 1994). Findings from studies that have explored the composition of trajectory groups indicate that members of ethnic minority groups populate chronic groups, who initiate early and have sustained offending over time at significantly higher rates (Allard et al. 2013;Broidy et al. 2015;Livingston et al. 2008;Piquero & Buka 2002). ...
ISBN 978 1 925304 35 0 (Online)
... In the initial chapter of our book, we delineated the theories of delinquency and drew particular attention to the developmental trajectories proposed within Moffitt's developmental taxonomic theory of delinquency (Caspi & Moffitt, 1995;Moffitt, 1990Moffitt, , 1993Moffitt, , 1994Moffitt, , 1997Moffitt, , 2003. Two primary prototypes were initially hypothesized by Moffitt: 1. Early-onset life-course persistent (LCP) offenders who are few, persistent, and pathologic and whose antisocial behaviors originate in neurodevelopmental processes, beginning in childhood, and continuing to worsen thereafter. ...
The news of teenagers and even younger children committing ever more serious and violent crimes continues to shock and baffle. The escalating psychological and social toll of youth crime is being paid by all – from victims to offenders to parents and siblings to teachers and to the community as a whole. Adolescent Reputations and Risk looks beyond traditional theories to examine, from a solid empirical basis, the motivation and values that make some young people choose antisocial over positive behavior, resulting in potent new insights and possible solutions to this ongoing problem.
Synthesizing 15 years of research with delinquent youth, this volume describes the volatile dynamic of child and adolescent social worlds, emphasizing reputation enhancement and goal-setting as bases underlying deviant behavior. In innovative and accessible terms, Adolescent Reputations and Risk:
• Addresses delinquency throughout the course of childhood and adolescence.
• Offers the first detailed explanation of delinquency by integrating goal-setting and reputation enhancement theories.
• Provides evidence analyzing deviant trends in goal-setting and reputation enhancement terms among primary and high school students.
• Answers key questions on topics such as impulsivity, drug and inhalant use, early-childhood psychopathy, links between ADHD and aggression, and the psychology of loners.
• Includes current data on interventions for at-risk youth, including family and school methods, cognitive-behavioral therapy, wilderness and boot camp programs, and interactive multimedia strategies.
This volume is an essential resource for clinical child, school, and counseling psychologists; social workers; and allied education and community mental health professionals and practitioners.
From a team of leading experts comes a comprehensive, multidisciplinary examination of the most current research including the complex issue of violence and violent behavior. The handbook examines a range of theoretical, policy, and research issues and provides a comprehensive overview of aggressive and violent behavior. The breadth of coverage is impressive, ranging from research on biological factors related to violence and behavior-genetics to research on terrrorism and the impact of violence in different cultures. The authors examine violence from international cross-cultural perspectives, with chapters that examine both quantitative and qualitative research. They also look at violence at multiple levels: individual, family, neighborhood, cultural, and across multiple perspectives and systems, including treatment, justice, education, and public health.
Despite the rise in female offending, we know little about how female offending patterns vary with age and how they compare to those of males. In this study, we used linked administrative data from a 1983 and 1984 Australian birth cohort ( N = 83,362) to estimate offending trajectories separately for males and females and to examine how these patterns vary within and across sex. Results indicated that there was significant heterogeneity within sex, with five offending trajectories identified separately for both males and females. Males and females classified in chronic offending trajectories had the highest mean number of offenses than all other groups, and Indigenous females were more likely than non-Indigenous males to populate chronic and early adult-onset trajectory groups. The findings highlight the importance of recognizing the heterogeneity of female offending pathways to inform effective, targeted, and timely policies and interventions to reduce female offending.
From a team of leading experts comes a comprehensive, multidisciplinary examination of the most current research including the complex issue of violence and violent behavior. The handbook examines a range of theoretical, policy, and research issues and provides a comprehensive overview of aggressive and violent behavior. The breadth of coverage is impressive, ranging from research on biological factors related to violence and behavior-genetics to research on terrrorism and the impact of violence in different cultures. The authors examine violence from international cross-cultural perspectives, with chapters that examine both quantitative and qualitative research. They also look at violence at multiple levels: individual, family, neighborhood, cultural, and across multiple perspectives and systems, including treatment, justice, education, and public health.
From a team of leading experts comes a comprehensive, multidisciplinary examination of the most current research including the complex issue of violence and violent behavior. The handbook examines a range of theoretical, policy, and research issues and provides a comprehensive overview of aggressive and violent behavior. The breadth of coverage is impressive, ranging from research on biological factors related to violence and behavior-genetics to research on terrrorism and the impact of violence in different cultures. The authors examine violence from international cross-cultural perspectives, with chapters that examine both quantitative and qualitative research. They also look at violence at multiple levels: individual, family, neighborhood, cultural, and across multiple perspectives and systems, including treatment, justice, education, and public health.
The aim of this study was to identify relationships between the functional state of the different brain regulatory systems (BRS), voluntary control and emotional-motivational regulation in adolescents (n = 95, age ~13.96 ± 1.13, girls 34%). We also analyzed the relationship between individual characteristics of emotional-motivational regulation and risk-taking tendencies in separated groups with specific EEG signs of suboptimal functional state of the BRS. Five tests were performed: 1) assessment of individual traits of achievement motivation vs. failure avoidance using the Mehrabian Questionnaire (TMD), 2) emotional intelligence (EI) using the MSCEIT 2.0, 3) assessment of propensity to risky decision-making by monetary computer game Baloon Analog Risk Task. On the basis of a qualitative analysis of the EEG, 4) the participants were classified into groups showing evidence of suboptimal functioning of the frontothalamic (FTS), limbic (LMB), frontobasal (FBZ) and to control group in the case of absence of specific signes. All groups, except control, showed a decrease in the EI scale, which associate sensations with emotions. A specific decrease in EI indicators was found in experimental groups in comparison with the control group: FTS – on the scale of understanding blended emotions; LMB — on the scale of facilitation of cognitive activity by emotions; FBZ group — on a scale reflecting the ability to manage one’s own emotions. The indicators of the Mehrabian questionnaire showed propensity towards achievement motivation in the LMB. Correlations between EI, achievement motivation and risk-taking: in FTS, LMB a positive correlation of the risk-taking with the scale associate sensations with emotions. For LMB there is also a positive correlation between risk-taking, understanding and management of emotions. The results are discussed in terms of the influence of the suboptimal state of brain regulatory systems on the emotional and motivational regulation in adolescents.
The decline of criminal energy with growing age in the general offender population is replicated in a similar pattern for the active and serious criminals. Predictions of their dangerousness can be made more accurate by using longitudinal statistics on reoffending according to age, crime type, and previous convictions as base rates. For this purpose Blumstein and Larson conceived a model of the interactions between offenders and the criminal justice system. It can be used to calculate the average number of offenses committed by a given type of offender, such as street criminals or sex offenders, after release from long prison sentences. As a consequence of the aging‐out effect the number of offenses will be considerably reduced after several years behind bars, even for those ex‐convicts who were not able or not willing to benefit from rehabilitation programs.
Literatur- und Stichwortverzeichnis
Immigration is sometimes associated with crime and delinquency in the mind of the public, and it is often assumed that individuals not born in the U.S. engage in more crime and delinquency than do the native born. However, not enough research to date has looked at offending across the life-course and compared trajectories between U.S. born and non-U.S. born populations. Guided by life-course perspectives and utilizing group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM), this article uses four waves of National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) data to describe and contrast longitudinal variations in offending behavior between US born and non-US born individuals. The analyses show that there are fewer offending trajectory groups among the non-U.S. born, and that they generally offend at lower levels across the life-course than do the U.S. born. Further analysis also shows differences between the two groups in factors that shape trajectory group membership.
Purpose
This paper provides a historical review of developmental and life-course criminology.
Methods
It uses a narrative and historical approach.
Results
Several turning points are identified that have shaped the study of developmental and life-course criminology.
Conclusions
Developmental and life-course criminology is criminology. Directions for future inquiry are noted.
Extant literature examining the impact of psychosocial maturity on offending finds that diminished psychosocial maturity is related to increases in offending in adolescence, and gains in psychosocial maturity are related to desistance from offending in adulthood. Yet, we know less about the reverse of this relationship—the effect of offending on psychosocial development. To fill this gap, this study examines how within-individual changes in offending relate to within-individual changes in psychosocial maturity among a school-based sample of middle adolescents. Using 3-year panel data from a sample of 2,619 7th and 8th graders from a Midwestern county, we estimate a series of fixed-effect regression models to examine the within-individual effect of delinquency on six indicators of psychosocial maturity—impulse control, anger control, future orientation, self-esteem, school orientation, and resistance to peers. Results consistently show that engaging in higher levels of delinquency during the previous 6 months is related to lower self-reported levels of psychosocial maturity. We discuss how this finding informs our theoretical understanding of psychosocial maturity’s complex relationship with offending across the life course as well as its implications for school-based programming.
Five recent developmental typologies of antisocial behavior and crime are described and compared with the courses that were identified in the MTSFGCLS. A multilayered theoretical trajectory model of antisocial behavior and crime is proposed, containing a meta-trajectory, meso-courses, and micro-paths. This model is tested with official and self-reported longitudinal measures from the 1960 and 1980 generations and by types of antisocial behavior and crimes.
Recidivism is an offense committed by a person who at the time of his trial for one crime has been previously convicted by a final judgment of another crime. From this perspective, the researchers are interested to explore the lived experiences and untold stories of repeat offenders. The study focuses on three parts; the informants’ experiences in the pillars of the criminal justice system; the impacts of incarceration on the lives of the offender; and the reasons for reoffending. A qualitative research design using a phenomenological approach was used in the conduct of the study through an in-depth interview with the informants. The sample informants which comprises of ten recidivists and inmates of selected city jails Negros Occidental, Philippines participated in the interview through purposive sampling using the inclusion criteria set by the researchers. The data was collected using audiotaping of interviews. Audiotapes were then transcribed where data from transcriptions were analyzed to describe the richness of the informants’ experiences. Out of the transcribed and analyzed data, six major themes emerged. The Cry of the Suspect, Light within the Darkness, You Reap what you Sow, Blessing in Disguise, Many are Bad Associates But Few are Good Mentors, and Corruption of the Mind. Key findings from the study suggest coordination and cooperation among the pillars of the criminal justice system come up with a very comprehensive and sustainable rehabilitation program with proper and effective implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Thereby, recommendations for change are provided in the emerging themes to address the phenomenon.
Previous studies on cross-national patterns of crime and problem behavior have focused primarily on homicide. This article proposes that cross-national research should pay more attention to broadly based measures of various types of problem behavior. By combining different types of sources, I derive measures for four types of problem behavior, namely violent crime, property crime, alcohol abuse, and drug use for a sample of thirty-seven countries. Analysis of these data first shows that, at the level of cross-national comparison, different manifestations of problem behavior do not constitute a single underlying dimension. Rather, a cluster analysis reveals several groups of countries with similar configurations of problem behavior. Many Anglo-American countries, for example, were found to belong to a cluster with a high likelihood of various kinds of problem behavior associated with the transition from adolescence to early adulthood. High levels of violence characterize many Eastern European countries. Further analyses show that distinct types of problem behavior correlate with different contextual variables. Violence is found to be high in countries characterized by great social inequality, low levels of social control, and widespread material poverty. Drug use and alcohol abuse among young people, in contrast, is frequent in highly urbanized, highly affluent contexts where lifestyles are leisure-time oriented.
Drawing on findings from a prospective cohort design study that followed abused and neglected children and demographically matched controls into adulthood, this paper focuses on these abused and neglected girls and one important consequence—the extent to which these victims become offenders themselves. We ask four questions: Is criminal behavior among abused and neglected girls and women rare? Are abused and neglected girls at increased risk for becoming violent offenders? Does childhood maltreatment affect criminal career trajectories for girls? Do maltreated girls grow up to maltreat their own children? We conclude with discussion, suggestions for future research, and implications.
Developmental and life-course criminology can be differentiated from other types of criminology by its focus on, and appreciation of, change over time in antisocial behaviour and offending, using longitudinal research. This approach emerged from a long history of longitudinal studies which culminated in the articulation of the ‘criminal careers’ perspective in the mid 1980s. Since then there have been numerous analyses and developmental and life-course theories which have attempted to explain and classify patterns of offending and antisocial behaviour over time. In this paper we consider various methods used to classify these behaviours, using the examination of persistent antisocial behaviour and offending as a case study. While sophisticated analytic techniques exist, we argue that in the case of identifying persistent offending, a focus on the duration of offending is the key consideration.
Violent crime is a critically important community issue. Government has attempted to address this problem in a variety of ways, with varied levels of success. However, there are only a certain number and type of factors that can be addressed by government action; which are most important? In this paper we address this question by “reverse engineering” the crime prediction problem. Intuition suggests that the collection of factors most informative in predicting crime will include, as a subset, the primary causal factors of crime. If this is true, it makes sense to develop ways to identify and objectively quantify these most informative predictive factors. We characterize the K-metric (loosely related to the F-Measure) for assessing the effectiveness of measured features for crime prediction. This metric is used to substantially reduce the number of factors needed to capture the total information of a many-feature dataset. Further, all features in the set can be rank ordered by their K-metric values, providing an automated means of identifying and objectively quantifying potentially causal factors for intervention services.
Unmanned aircraft system (UAS) sensor operators must maintain performance while tasked with multiple operations and objectives, yet are often subject to boredom and consequences of the prevalence-effect during area scanning and target identification tasks. Adapting training scenarios to accurately reflect real-world scenarios can help prepare sensor operators for their duty. Furthermore, integration of objective measures of cognitive workload and performance, through evaluation of functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as a non-invasive measurement tool for monitor of higher-level cognitive functioning, can allow for quantitative assessment of human performance. This study sought to advance previous work regarding the assessment of cognitive and task performance in UAS sensor operators to evaluate expertise development and responsive changes in mental workload.
Auch wenn das einleitende Zitat des Grünen-Bundestagsabgeordneten Kai Gehring beim Erschienen dieser dritten Auflage des Handbuches Jugendkriminalität bereits fast ein Jahrzehnt alt ist, so steht es doch exemplarisch für ein auf der politischen Bühne weiterhin weitverbreitetes Verständnis davon, wie strafrechtlich bewährte Abweichungen von Jugendlichen am besten verhindert oder bearbeitet werden sollten (Dollinger et al. 2016).
Jugendkriminalität ist ubiquitär und episodisch. Dieser Befund ist inzwischen allgemein anerkannt. Ubiquität zeigte sich in einer Fülle von Befragungsstudien über delinquentes Verhalten: die große Mehrheit der Jugendlichen berichtete dabei von eigenen Rechtsbrüchen. Den episodischen Charakter erkannte man aus diversen Längsschnittstudien, die teils kriminelle Karrieren, teils delinquente Lebensläufe untersuchten.
The Axis II Work Group of the Task Force on DSM–IV has expressed concern that antisocial personality disorder (APD) criteria are too long and cumbersome and that they focus on antisocial behaviors rather than personality traits central to traditional conceptions of psychopathy and to international criteria. We describe an alternative to the approach taken in the rev. 3rd ed. of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–III–R; American Psychiatric Association, 1987), namely, the revised Psychopathy Checklist. We also discuss the multisite APD field trials designed to evaluate and compare four criteria sets: the DSM–III–R criteria, a shortened list of these criteria, the criteria for dyssocial personality disorder from the 10th ed. of the International Classification of Diseases (World Health Organization, 1990), and a 10-item criteria set for psychopathic personality disorder derived from the revised Psychopathy Checklist.
David C. McClelland's 1973 article has deeply influenced both professional and public opinion. In it, he presented five major themes: (a) Grades in school did not predict occupational success, (b) intelligence tests and aptitude tests did not predict occupational success or other important life outcomes, (c) tests and academic performance only predicted job performance because of an underlying relationship with social status, (d) such tests were unfair to minorities, and (e) “competencies” would be better able to predict important behaviors than would more traditional tests. Despite the pervasive influence of these assertions, this review of the literature showed only limited support for these claims.
The emergence of new behaviors and the reorganization of psychological structures are often attributed to critical events and crises in the life course. A fundamentally different perspective is offered: Potentially disruptive transitions produce personality continuity, not change. The behavioral responses of adolescent girls to the onset of menarche was studied in a longitudinal study of an unselected birth cohort. Predictions from 3 rival hypotheses about the relation between pubertal change and social psychological change were first tested: the stressful change, off time, and early-timing hypotheses. The results supported the early-timing hypothesis. Whether stressful, early menarche generated new behavioral problems or accentuated premenarcheal dispositions was then tested. The results supported an accentuation model: Stressful transitions accentuated behavioral problems among girls who were predisposed to behavioral problems earlier in childhood. Speculations are offered for a broader theory about the role of individual differences in the life course.
The relation between psychological characteristics and drug use was investigated in subjects studied longitudinally, from preschool through age 18. Adolescents who had engaged in some drug experimentation (primarily with marijuana) were the best-adjusted in the sample. Adolescents who used drugs frequently were maladjusted, showing a distinct personality syndrome marked by interpersonal alienation, poor impulse control, and manifest emotional distress. Adolescents who, by age 18, had never experimented with any drug were relatively anxious, emotionally constricted, and lacking in social skills.
Psychological differences between frequent drug users, experimenters, and abstainers could be traced to the earliest years of childhood and related to the quality of parenting received. The findings indicate that (a) problem drug use is a symptom, not a cause, of personal and social maladjustment, and (b) the meaning of drug use can be understood only in the context of an individual’s personality structure and developmental history. It is suggested that current efforts at drug prevention are misguided to the extent that they focus on symptoms, rather than on the psychological syndrome underlying drug abuse.
This article summarizes the findings from three interlocking structural equation models. The models define a set of relations between stress and family management skills, and between parental discipline and antisocial child behavior. In the third model it is hypothesized that inept parenting skills set a process in motion that causes the child to be rejected by peers, to fail academically, and to have low self-esteem. These sets of relations were modeled. The findings provided consistent support for all three models.
Two studies of relatively aggressive and relatively unaggressive emotionally disturbed boys (aged 10–16 yrs) in residential treatment examined whether the more aggressive children exhibit either an attributional bias to infer hostility regardless of the nature of the social stimuli that they appraised or an actual ability to detect true instances of hostility. In both studies, the social stimuli consisted of photographs that each depicted 1 of 4 classes of affectively charged interpersonal situations (created by crossing the bipolar dimensions of positivity–negativity and dominance–submission). Study 1, with 32 Ss, varied both the nature of the social stimulus materials and the possible appraisals (response alternatives) available to the S in a way that distinguished the effects of attributional bias from those of actual ability to identify a particular class of social stimuli. Study 2, with 40 Ss, relaxed the response constraints imposed on Ss in the 1st study in order to assess the appraisals of the 4 classes of social stimuli that relatively aggressive and relatively unaggressive Ss formulated spontaneously. Findings from both studies indicate that an attributional bias to infer hostility from various classes of social stimuli became more marked as aggressiveness increased. (32 ref)
The syndrome produced by septal lesions in animals can serve as a functional research model of human disinhibitory psychopathology which appears to span several traditionally separate psychological categories––psychopathy, hysteria, hyperactivity, antisocial and impulsive personality, and alcoholism. It is proposed that these categories are separate manifestations of the same genetic diathesis and that the "septal syndrome" may constitute a valid model of behavioral aspects of this diathesis. A program of experimentation utilizing this animal model is outlined. (65 ref)
Notes that for many years, researchers and practitioners have found that minority-group clients who seek psychotherapeutic services receive discriminatory treatment from White therapists. Underlying this finding is the implicit assumption that the mental health delivery system should strive to provide equal and nondiscriminatory services for all clients. An analysis of the services received by 13,198 minority clients in 17 community mental health facilities suggested that Blacks received differential treatment and poorer outcomes than Whites. However, Asian-American, Chicano, and native American clients who tended to receive treatment equal to that of White clients also had poorer outcomes as measured by premature termination rates. It is suggested that a time may well come when minority clients receive equal but unresponsive services, and that primary attention should be placed on the delivery of responsive services rather than on the demonstration of inequities. (17 ref)
Examined the patterns of consequents that problem and nonproblem family members provided for each other's behavior, and the responsivity of the members to those consequents. 20 families with a male child 5–10 yrs old were selected on the basis of their Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Scale and Peterson-Quay Behavior Problem Checklist scores. The families' interactions were observed in a laboratory setting and coded using a behavioral rating system. Results show that problem families provided more aversive and fewer positive consequents for prosocial behavior and more positive and fewer consequents for deviant behavior than nonproblem families. Problem family members were less responsive to the consequents than nonproblem family members. Results are discussed in terms of the development and maintenance of dysfunctional family systems. (24 ref)
Two issues that complicate behavioral genetic analyses are the interaction and correlation between genetic and environmental influences. In the present report, the effects of genotype-environment interaction and correlation on behavioral genetic studies (twin and adoption studies) are examined. The analysis suggests that genotype-environment interaction may bias twin study estimates of genetic and environmental influence but need not affect adoption studies. On the other hand, genotype-environment correlation may affect both twin and adoption study estimates of genetic and environmental influence, the direction of the effect depending on the sign of the correlation. New tests of genotype-environment interaction and correlation, using adoption data, are proposed. (27 ref)
Research on passive avoidance learning has demonstrated reliable differences between psychopaths and controls when avoidance errors result in electric shock but not in loss of money (Schmauk, 1970). Using monetary punishments, Newman, Widom, and Nathan (1985) found that psychopathic delinquents performed more poorly than controls in an experimental paradigm employing monetary reward as well as the avoidance contingency. The present study was conducted to replicate and extend these findings using adult psychopaths and a computer controlled task. Sixty white male prisoners were assigned to groups using Hare's (1980) Psychopathy Checklist and administered a “go/no-go” discrimination task involving monetary incentives. One condition entailed competing reward and punishment contingencies; the other, two punishment contingencies. As predicted, psychopaths made significantly more passive avoidance errors than nonpsychopaths when the task contained competing goals (p < .05) but performed as well as controls when the subjects' only goal was avoiding punishment. Results corroborate earlier findings that psychopaths are relatively poor at learning to inhibit reward-seeking behavior that results in monetary punishment.
This wide-ranging volume presents an in-depth picture of adolescent sexuality and behaviour. As perhaps the most vital period in human development, adolescence is a time of complex, often difficult interactions between diverse influences. Here, nineteen scientists representing ten disciplines explore the biological, psychological, and cultural factors involved in the onset of puberty and its associated emotional changes. Patterns of adolescent sexual behavior are viewed in cross-cultural perspective, psychiatric disorders are considered, and trends in adolescent sexual activity, contraception, and pregnancy are described. Key legal and social dilemmas are also explained. This is the third volume in an outstanding series from the Kinsey Institute which has as its aim the study of topics relating to sex, gender, and reproduction that require an interdisciplinary approach. Previous volumes in the series include Homosexuality/Heterosexuality and Masculinity/Feminity.
In this century, social factors have dominated theories of antisocial behaviour to the near-exclusion of other explanatory variables in the study of criminology. Criminologists are now coming to realise that fully understanding the causes of criminality requires consideration of both social and biological variables and that their models must take into account the interaction of the two. Reports of the relevant scientific work have previously been scattered through journals with varying disciplinary and geographical limitations. The book presents state-of-the-art investigation into the biological factors that produce criminal activity from authorities in nine countries who are on the forefront of research in behaviour genetics, neurophysiology, biochemistry, neuropsychology, psychophysiology, psychiatry and sociology. The Causes of Crime: New Biological Approaches offers the first comprehensive overview and integration of this new field of enquiry. It will be an invaluable resource for everyone concerned with the causes of criminal behaviour and interventions to reduce its frequency.
In this century, social factors have dominated theories of antisocial behaviour to the near-exclusion of other explanatory variables in the study of criminology. Criminologists are now coming to realise that fully understanding the causes of criminality requires consideration of both social and biological variables and that their models must take into account the interaction of the two. Reports of the relevant scientific work have previously been scattered through journals with varying disciplinary and geographical limitations. The book presents state-of-the-art investigation into the biological factors that produce criminal activity from authorities in nine countries who are on the forefront of research in behaviour genetics, neurophysiology, biochemistry, neuropsychology, psychophysiology, psychiatry and sociology. The Causes of Crime: New Biological Approaches offers the first comprehensive overview and integration of this new field of enquiry. It will be an invaluable resource for everyone concerned with the causes of criminal behaviour and interventions to reduce its frequency.
In 1982 the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation created a small committee-the Justice Program Study Group (whose membership is listed at the end ofthis preface)-and posed to it what can hardly be regarded as an easy ques tion: "What ideas, what concepts, what basic intellectual frameworks are lack ing" to understand and to more effectively deal with crime in our society? Those who are acquainted with the work of the members of the Study Group will appreciate how many divergent views were expressed-divergent to the degree that some of us came to the conclusion that we were not a Study Group at all but rather a group being studied, an odd collection of ancient experimental animals serving some dark purpose of the Foundation. Eventually, however, a surprisingly strong concurrence emerged. We found we were impressed by the extent to which in our discussions we placed heavy reliance on the products of two types of research: first, those few longitudinal studies related to juvenile delinquency and crime that had been pursued in this country and, second, a few experimental studies that had sought to measure the consequences of different official interventions in criminal careers. These two research strategies had taught us much about crime and its control. Other strategies-case studies, cross-sectional surveys, participant observations, and similar techniques-had indeed been productive, but it was the longitudinal and experimental designs that firmed up the knowledge that the others helped to discover.
A latent class model is proposed to estimate the magnitude and direction of errors of measurement in reports of young offending It is shown that, subject to the availability of information from reports of offending behaviour by two sources and information on a known predictor of offending, it is possible to fit models which estimate the magnitude of errors of reporting and the true prevalence of offending. This model is applied to self-report data collected for over 700 New Zealand 12-year-old children. This analysis suggested that under-reporting of offending was very high and it was estimated that over 50% of children who offended failed to report offending. The analysis is extended to show that the consequences of errors in reporting behaviour are to lead to a serious underestimation of the strength of relationships between risks of offending and predictor variables. The implications of these results for the interpretation of report statistics are discussed.
Our main concern is to advance knowledge about the onset of delinquency and crime. When a person commits an offense for the first time, it is only future experience that can establish with certainty whether that offense was the onset of a persistent and serious criminal career or whether it was simultaneously the person’s first and last offense. However, the age at which a first offense occurs is one of the best predictors (or even the best predictor; see Blumstein, Farrington, & Moitra, 1985) of the future course of the criminal career.
Minimal brain dysfunction (MBD) has become an important diagnostic label for the disorders in many children who exhibit certain constellations of learning and behavior problems. There remains, however, considerable misunderstanding about the meaning and the applicability of this term. The disagreements about MBD result from differing views regarding evidence for brain disorders and the significance of the many symptoms that have been attributed to the children with this diagnosis. In order to clarify these issues and establish an acceptable definition for MBD, a national task force was convened (Clements, 1966). The definition, which still lacked simplicity and clarity, stated that MBD should only be applied to describe those children with at least near-average intelligence whose learning and behavioral disabilities are the consequence of certain perceptual, cognitive, and attentive dysfunctions. A review of the symptoms and signs that had been used for MBD diagnosis resulted in a list of 99 items; these were reduced to ten major characteristics. The author cautioned that this “sign” approach should be employed only as a guideline for identification and diagnosis, because any one MBD child exhibits only some of these symptoms, with varying degrees of severity. The efforts by this task force resulted in clarification of several issues: the MBD diagnosis requires the exclusion of other disorders such as mental retardation, sensory impairments, “major” neurological disorders (e.g., cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and aphasia), and psychiatric disturbances.
Delinquent careers, typically, have been thought to begin in adolescence (ages 12 to 16) rather than during late childhood (7 to 11). The commission of offenses by elementary school aged youngsters, however, has attracted more attention from criminologists in recent years, which has resulted in some new insights. First, offenders now are said to engage in delinquent acts at an earlier age than was previously thought. Second, an early onset of offending, according to some studies, is predictive not only of longer offending careers but also of higher rates of offending during the career. Third, surveys show that a surprising proportion of elementary school age children commit offenses that do not lead to criminal prosecution, and thus do not show up in crime statistics (Loeber, 1987).
The Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development is a prospective longitudinal survey of crime and delinquency in 411 males, mostly born in 1953. The Study began in 1961–62, when most of the boys were aged 8–9. The major results obtained so far can be found in four books1) and over 60 published articles listed at the end of this paper. The Study was originally directed by Donald J. West, and it is now directed by David P. Farrington, who has worked on it since 1969. This paper initially describes the Study and past results obtained in it, and then summarizes the most recent results emerging from the latest interviews with the males at age 32.
An assumption that aggression and antisocial behavior represent the same dimension of personality appears frequently in the literature. For example, Dollard et al., (1939) used crime rates to support their thesis that frustration leads to aggression. Bandura and Walters (1959) wrote of adolescent aggression in describing their study of delinquents. Lefkowitz et al., (1977) considered arrests as a criterion to validate their measure of aggression. Perhaps the absence of evidence about the relationship between aggression and criminality has gone unnoticed because antisocial behavior is identified as being behavior injurious to society and aggression is defined as behavior intended to injure. Yet not all behavior intended to injure is criminal, and not all criminal behavior appears to be aggressive. The present research is aimed at disentangling antecedents of aggressiveness and antecedents of antisocial behavior.
Aggression is a term that, taken in isolation, connotes negative images in the minds of most adults. Yet in a culture such as ours, with its fascination with figures such as Muhammed Ali and the mythic creations of Clint Eastwood and Sylvester Stallone, it is clear that aggression has a mixed impact on the imaginations of adults in our society. The same is true for children, for whom the individuals mentioned represent popular role models and heroes. Yet when investigators of peer rejection examine the reports of children and observe those who are rejected according to sociometric evidence, the single most compelling reason for peer rejection is aggressive behavior.
The increased interest in temperamental qualities during the last 20 years has corrected the theoretical imbalance created by 50 years of extreme environmental interpretations of the sources of behavioral variation in children by reminding investigators of the interdependence of agents and their surroundings. Biological and behavioral phenomena are emergent events resulting from the interactions of inherent qualities within the agent and facilitating or constraining conditions in the contexts in which the agent grows. Scholars have always had difficulty finding a clear, satisfying way to describe the sense meanings of the terms emergent and interaction, resorting often to illustrative examples from embryology. If a biologist transfers primordial neural crest cells that are destined to become part of the cornea to a different site, those cells may grow into a ganglion of the sympathetic chain if the transfer occurs before a critical time in the differentiation of the cells.
Longitudinal research is especially useful in investigating the natural history of a phenomenon, or its course of development. It can establish the incidence and prevalence of a phenomenon and indicate whether there are continuities or discontinuities between incidence stages. The focus of this chapter is on the relationship between age and delinquent or criminal behavior.
