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The Global Impact of Multisystemic Vulnerabilities on Criminal Variety: A Cross-Continental Study in Young Adults
Journal of Interpersonal Violence
Abstract
Previous research has shown a robust association between different childhood and adolescent vulnerabilities and youth offending. However, these investigations have primarily focused on youths from high-income Western countries. Consequently, the generalizability of these findings to better inform global justice policies remains uncertain. This study aimed to address this gap by examining the relationship between individual, familial, and contextual vulnerabilities and criminal versatility during young adulthood, accounting for sociodemographic factors and cross-national differences. Data were derived from a diverse sample of 4,182 young adults. Results indicate that child maltreatment, substance abuse, and delinquent peers are global risk factors for criminal variety. Moreover, they are independent among males and females and youths living in countries ranked
differently on the Human Development Index (HDI). In addition, some childhood vulnerabilities showed different predictive ability across sexes (e.g., school failure), and across countries ranked differently on the HDI (e.g., family dysfunction).
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Background:
The cultural normativeness theory posits that specific parenting behaviors can be interpreted as displays of appropriate parenting in contexts where they are deemed normative. Previous studies suggest high acceptance of physical discipline in Singapore, where strict parenting could be interpreted as care for the child. However, there is a lack of studies on the local prevalence and implications of physical discipline. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of Singaporean children experiencing parental physical discipline, longitudinal changes in this prevalence, and how exposure to physical discipline relates to children's evaluation of their parents' parenting.
Methods:
Participants were 710 children with parental reports of physical discipline at one or more assessments at ages 4.5, 6, 9, and 11 years in the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes birth cohort study. Parental reports of physical discipline were obtained using the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire or the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire across the four assessments. Child reports of their parents' care and control were obtained using the Parental Bonding Instrument for Children at the age 9 assessment. Prevalence was specified as being exposed to at least one physical discipline at any frequency. A generalized linear mixed model was performed to examine whether children's age predicted their exposure to physical discipline. Linear regression analyses were conducted to investigate whether children's exposure to physical discipline predicted their evaluation of their parents' parenting.
Results:
The prevalence of children experiencing at least one physical discipline was above 80% at all ages. There was a decrease in this prevalence from age 4.5 to 11 years (B = - 0.14, SE = 0.01, OR = 0.87, p < 0.001). The more frequent the paternal physical discipline children were exposed to, the more likely they were to report lower levels of care (B = - 1.74, SE = 0.66, p = 0.03) and higher levels of denial of psychological autonomy by fathers (B = 1.05, SE = 0.45, p = 0.04). Maternal physical discipline was not significantly associated with children's evaluation of their mothers' parenting (ps ≥ 0.53).
Conclusions:
Physical discipline was a common experience among our Singaporean sample, consistent with the notion that strict parenting could be regarded as a form of care. However, exposure to physical discipline did not translate to children reporting their parents as caring, with paternal physical discipline being negatively associated with children's evaluations of paternal care.
An emerging line of research explores how calculating the harm associated with different types of crime serves as a method to measure crime across times, places and people. A crime harm index (CHI) is suggested to produce a more reliable bottom line indicator of public safety and it would allow law enforcement agencies to invest their scarce resources in proportion to the harm caused by various types of crimes. This scoping literature review maps the literature on crime harm indices published after 2006 by answering the following research questions: (1) what is the rationale for a CHI, (2) what are the possible ways to operationalize a CHI; (3) how can a CHI be used in crime analysis; (4) what are the general outcomes of the studies using a CHI; (5) what are the known challenges and critiques of a CHI and (6) what research gaps related to CHI are expressed in this field of research?
Despite advances in recent decades to internationalize criminology, one major roadblock that is often mentioned is the difficulty in collecting and obtaining high-quality international and cross-cultural data. More than ever, there is a growing amount of international data covering a wide variety of topics relevant to understanding crime. Visible and accessible international data can open up channels for dialogue and collaboration between cultures and regions, as well as opportunities to test, refine, and develop theoretical and empirical knowledge. This paper therefore aims to make the ‘world of data’ out there more visible not only to shed light on the potential for international research and collaboration, but to highlight the growing, rich body of international knowledge that already exists.
The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review of the existing literature regarding trauma-informed education programs and their impact on academic and academic-related outcomes. The articles included for review (n = 15) contained data on trauma-informed education programs implemented in preschool, primary/elementary, and high school settings. Academic and academic-related outcomes reported included attendance, disciplinary referrals, suspension, and academic achievement, as well as student resilience, school attachment, and emotional presentation. Findings from this systematic review highlight that trauma-informed education programs can improve students’ academic and academic-related outcomes; however, results were not consistent across the studies. Moving forward, recommendations include the need for additional trauma-informed school-based research to be conducted and dissemination of this research to ensure school systems are upskilled and responding appropriately to their traumatized students.
Background
The relative health and robustness of a field of research can be approximated by assessing peer reviewed journal publication trends for articles pertinent to the field. To date, there have been no such assessments of the burgeoning research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
Objective
The overall goal of this study was to examine ACEs research trends using bibliometric methods. More specifically, we sought to describe observed publication trends of the ACEs literature from its inception in the late 1990s. We also analyzed the nature of ACEs publications with regard to key characteristics of main outcomes, levels of analysis, and populations of primary focus.
Methods
A search was conducted using Scopus to identify English language papers on ACEs published in peer-reviewed journals between 1998 and 2018. The primary field of research was determined by having independent raters code the title of the publishing journal into distinct categories. Main research outcomes were similarly coded.
Results
A total of 789 articles on ACEs appearing in 351 different academic journals were published between 1998 and 2018. There was considerable growth in the number of ACEs papers published over the past several years. General medicine and multidisciplinary research were the most frequent of 12 primary fields of research characterizing ACEs research. Of 16 primary outcomes on which ACEs research focused, the most common were mental health and physical health.
Conclusion
Significant growth in ACEs research over the past several years suggest the field is thriving. Observed publication trends and publication characteristics are discussed briefly.
Introduction
Adults who had adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have increased risk of negative health outcomes. Despite the prevalence of ACEs, literature is scarce on quality of life (QOL) and ACEs in disadvantaged primary care populations.
Objective
To examine the prevalence of ACEs and association with chronic health problems and QOL in disadvantaged primary care patients in Oklahoma.
Methods
During a primary care visit, adults completed a questionnaire measuring demographics, ACEs, current health status and well-being, sources of support and adversity, and QOL. A physician investigator reviewed participants’ health records, recording the incidence of 32 diagnoses commonly associated with chronic health problems.
Results
The survey was completed by 354 patients. Forty-three percent received disability benefits and 71% were unemployed. More than 37% reported 4 or more ACEs, and 35.5% had 0 or 1 ACE.The amount of health problems ranged from 0 to 11 and increased with the number of reported ACEs. The mean number of health problems for each ACE level was as follows: ACEs 0 to 1 had 3.01 problems (95% confidence interval = 2.96–3.88), ACEs 2 to 3 had 3.42 problems (95% confidence interval = 2.96–3.88), and ACEs 4 and above had 4.18 problems (95% confidence interval = 3.72–4.64). ACEs were significantly related to QOL.
Conclusion
This disadvantaged primary care population had high numbers of ACEs. ACEs correlated with increasing numbers of health problems and worse QOL. Enhanced awareness and action are needed to reduce health disparities and improve outcomes in similar populations.
Social neurodevelopmental imbalance models posit that peer presence causes heightened adolescent risk-taking particularly during early adolescence. Evolutionary theory suggests that these effects would be most pronounced in males. However, the small but growing number of experimental studies on peer presence effects in adolescent risky decision-making showed mixed findings, and the vast majority of such studies did not test for the above-described gender and adolescent phase moderation effects. Moreover, most of those studies did not assess the criterion validity of the employed risky decision-making tasks. The current study was designed to investigate the abovementioned hypotheses among a sample of 327 ethnically-diverse Dutch early and mid-adolescents (49.80% female; Mage = 13.61). No main effect of peer presence on the employed risky-decision making task (i.e., the stoplight game) was found. However, the results showed a gender by peer presence moderation effect. Namely, whereas boys and girls engaged in equal levels of risks when they completed the stoplight game alone, boys engaged in more risk-taking than girls when they completed this task together with two same-sex peers. In contrast, adolescent phase did not moderate peer presence effects on risk-taking. Finally, the results showed that performance on the stoplight game predicted self-reported real-world risky traffic behavior, alcohol use and delinquency. Taken together, using a validated task, the present findings demonstrate that individual differences (i.e., gender) can determine whether the social environment (i.e., peer presence) affect risk-taking in early- and mid-adolescents. The finding that performance on a laboratory risky decision-making task can perhaps help identify adolescents that are vulnerable to diverse types of heightened risk behaviors is an important finding for science as well as prevention and intervention efforts.
The prediction and explanation of crime currently relies predominantly upon the concept of dynamic risk factors (DRF). Evidence suggests that DRF vary across cultures with respect to their prevalence and their predictive validity (e.g., Olver, Stockdale, & Wormith, 2014). What remains unclear is whether the observed differences can be explained by real cultural differences in the causes of crime; and if this is the case, how does culture influence this? We suggest that confusion arises due to conceptual problems with DRF and their measurement. Because DRF are vague, composite, and value-laden constructs researchers are unable to minimize or control for the occurrence of construct or item bias when scores on risk measures are compared across cultures. This makes any further interpretation and adjustment to assessment or intervention unwarranted. If we do not know whether or how DRF cause violence within the cultural context of their development, we cannot possibly hope to explain this relationship in another culture. We suggest that there is a pressing need to provide coherent theories for research, risk assessment and treatment in the future. We will discuss possible ways forward in this paper.
The transmission of attitudes toward deviant behavior occurs in social contexts such as peer groups. Accordingly, individuals align their attitudes to those of friends because they want to belong to that social category or, conversely, individual attitudes influence the perception of peer attitudes. Hence, individuals self-stereotype themselves as being members of a peer group or they project their attitudes onto friends. However, it is unclear which process—self-stereotyping or social projection—is predominant in determining similarity of individual and peer attitudes toward deviant behavior. Furthermore, it is unclear whether predominance changes between early/middle adolescence and emerging adulthood. These gaps are examined with panel data on individual attitudes toward deviant behavior and perceived attitudes of individuals’ friends from a German study covering ages 14 to 20 (N = 3723; proportion of male respondents across panel waves ranges between 42 and 49%). A random intercepts cross-lagged panel model is applied to the data to estimate within-person effects in both directions, which allows to answer whether self-stereotyping or social projection is predominant and whether predominance changes across time. The results indicate that self-stereotyping is active almost entirely in adolescence and emerging adulthood. Reversed effects only occur during the transition from adolescence to emerging adulthood, signaling a developmental shift toward social projection. Thus, the influence of perceived peer attitudes toward deviant behavior on individual attitudes decreases in the phase in which adolescents develop into young adults. At the same time, individuals’ own attitudes become increasingly influential for making inferences about the attitudes of their peers.
The highest rates of serious interpersonal violence occur in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) especially in Latin America, the Caribbean, and sub–Saharan Africa. However, previous reviews of risk factors for youth violence focused almost entirely on studies from high-income countries (HICs). Rigorous synthesis of evidence is needed for LMICs. We conducted a meta-analysis of studies of youth violence in LMICs, identified by extensive searches in seven languages. Studies reporting correlates of violence perpetration in samples of 100 or more 10–29 year-olds from the general population in LMICs were included in the review. Eighty-six studies including 480,898 individuals from 60 countries were eligible for meta-analysis. Violent outcomes included fighting, carrying a weapon and other interpersonal violent behaviors (e.g. assault). The strongest correlates of youth violence (OR ≥ 2.5) were: male sex, impulsivity, conduct problems, sexual intercourse at an early age, smoking, alcohol use, using illicit drugs, being bullied, suffering criminal victimization, having deviant/delinquent peers, and watching violent television. We conclude that many correlates of youth violence in LMICs are similar to those that have been identified in HICs, but other biological, psychological, and cultural predictors remain to be tested in LMICs. Implications for research and policy are discussed.
Objectives
Self-reported offending is one of the primary measurement methods in criminology. In this article, we aimed to systematically review the experimental evidence regarding measurement bias in self-reports of offending.
Methods
We carried out a systematic search for studies that (a) included a measure of offending, (b) compared self-reported data on offending between different methods, and (c) used an experimental design. Effect sizes were used to summarize the results.
Results
The 21 pooled experiments provided evidence regarding 18 different types of measurement manipulations which were grouped into three categories, i.e., Modes of administration, Procedures of data collection, and Questionnaire design. An analysis of the effect sizes for each experimental manipulation revealed, on the one hand, that self-reports are reliable across several ways of collecting data and, on the other hand, self-reports are influenced by a wide array of biasing factors. Within these measurement biases, we found that participants’ reports of offending are influenced by modes of administration, characteristics of the interviewer, anonymity, setting, bogus pipeline, response format, and size of the questionnaire.
Conclusions
This review provides evidence that allows us to better understand and improve crime measurements. However, many of the experiments presented in this review are not replicated and additional research is needed to test further aspects of how asking questions may impact participants’ answers.
Since 1990, the Human Development Index (HDI) has been used by the United Nations to rank countries into four tiers of human development. Using data from the 2010 Human Development Report, this study has analyzed the mean life satisfaction of citizens from 144 countries that are at different levels of HDI. Simple regression analysis shows that HDI alone accounts for 63% of the variation in the mean life satisfaction across the countries. A strong positive correlation has been shown to exist between life satisfaction and HDI. However, countries with about the same level of HDI can have vastly different life satisfaction. Results from the Multiple Regression Analysis indicate that part of the variations in life satisfaction in countries with similar HDI is attributed to the personal dimensions of well-being-that being the percentage of the population that is satisfied with jobs, health, and standard of living, and to a lesser extent elements of happiness such as having a purposeful life and social support, and being treated with respect. In conclusion, while HDI is an important predictor of life satisfaction, there are many other socio-political and cultural factors as well, such as an individuals' traits and outlook in life throughout the world, also influence life satisfaction, to various degrees.
Objective:
Debate ensues regarding female-specific risk and strength factors among adolescent offenders. Using meta-analysis, we examined whether risk and strength factors predicted recidivism differentially between male and female youth.
Method:
Database searches identified 22 studies, representing 50,601 justice-involved youth (11,952 females and 38,649 males) and a total of 584 effect sizes.
Results:
For the global risk domains, there is some evidence for gender neutrality (i.e., risk factors predict to the same degree for both males and females) among most domains (e.g., antisocial peer relations, problematic family circumstances and parenting, substance abuse, antisocial personality/behavior, and antisocial attitudes/orientation). Although the global domains of mental health and child abuse were not significantly predictive for either gender, the global child abuse results trended in favor of predicting recidivism for females. When global risk domains were broken into indicators, some evidence for gender differences emerged (e.g., chronic alcohol use and family substance abuse predicted more strongly for females than for males). Last, gender comparisons among the global strength domains revealed that prosocial peers and the absence of substance abuse predicted success (i.e., no recidivism) for both genders, though a stronger effect emerged for males. In addition, education/employment strengths predicted success for males, whereas prosocial values predicted success for females. Limitations such as the lack of studies that defined constructs from the female experience, and the small number of primary studies are discussed.
Conclusions:
Advancing the future of gender informed practice with justice-involved youth will require careful consideration of both gender similarities and differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
Purpose: The current study tested the links between routine activities and deviance across twenty-eight countries, thus, the potential generalizability of the routine activities framework.
Methods: Data were collected as part of the Second International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-2) from 28 cultures, from seventh, eighth, and ninth grade adolescents (N = 66,859). Routine activities were operationalized as family, peer, solitary, and community activities. Country-level predictors included unemployment rate, prison population, life expectancy, and educational attainment.
Results: Three-level, hierarchical linear modeling (individual, school, and country) was used to test both in-dividual and country-level effects on deviance. Findings supported predictions by the routine activities frame-work, where routine activities explained 3.1% unique variance in deviance, above and beyond effects by background variables as well as low self-control. Models showed that the effects of family activities, solitary activities, and peer activities were stronger in countries with higher life expectancies. In addition, mean educational attainment increased the effect of solitary activities on deviance, while the effect of family activities on deviance was lower in countries with higher levels of unemployment.
Conclusions: The routine activities framework generalized across these 28 countries in how it explains deviance; some unique country-level effects were found that conditioned person-context links.
Violent crime is a major cause of social instability, injury, and death in low- and middle-income countries. Longitudinal studies in high-income countries have provided important evidence on developmental precursors of violence and other antisocial behaviors. However, there may be unique influences or different risk factor effects in other social settings. Extensive searches in seven languages and screening of over 60,000 references identified 39 longitudinal studies of antisocial behavior in low- and middle-income countries. Many risk factors have roughly the same average effects as when studied in high-income countries. Stability of aggression over a 3-year period is almost identical across low- and middle-income countries and high-income countries. Dimensions of comorbid psychopathology such as low self-control, hyperactivity, and sensation seeking are associated with antisocial behavior in low- and middle-income countries, but some early physical health factors have consistently weak or null effects.
It is well known that adolescent risk-taking behaviors often occur in social settings among peers, however, it is unclear whether there are gender differences in the susceptibility to deviant peers, an antecedent to risk-taking behaviors. This qualitative review examines gender differences in adolescent susceptibility to deviant peer pressure in order to better understand processes that contribute to adolescent risk-taking behavior. The review of 26 studies revealed two primary trends: (1) compared to adolescent females, adolescent males appear to be more susceptible to peer influences that encourage risk-taking behaviors, or (2) there is no consistent gender difference in susceptibility to such peer influences. Only two studies reviewed suggested adolescent females to be more susceptible to deviant peer pressure than adolescent males. The discussion offers two useful perspectives that may explain the two trends in the literature. First, gender role socialization theory is consistent with the observed trend that adolescent males are more susceptible to deviant peer pressure for risk-taking behaviors than females as they seek alignment with the masculine ideal. Second, the conceptual and methodological issues, such as using typically male-dominated risk-taking tasks and assessments (i.e., delinquency scale) to measure both males’ and females’ outcomes, may obscure underlying patterns of gender differences in susceptibility to peer influence. Future researchers are encouraged to empirically examine these trends in order to create appropriate interventions.
This article analyses the data on minors included in the police, prosecution, conviction, prison and probation statistics of 45 European nations in 2010, which were collected in the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics. The main conclusions of the analysis are that comprehensive juvenile justice statistics are seldom available and that the existing data are hardly comparable across countries. The article identifies the main reasons that hamper the comparability: The definition of minors is not harmonized, the rules applied for the construction of the statistics are not the same, and there are differences in the legal procedures foreseen for minors as well as on the type of sanctions that can be imposed to them. As a consequence, European juvenile justice statistics do not provide valid comparable information on the extent of juvenile delinquency, and their reliability as indicators of the social reaction to it is doubtful.
Despite their disadvantaged generalizability relative to probability samples, nonprobability convenience samples are the standard within developmental science, and likely will remain so because probability samples are cost-prohibitive and most available probability samples are ill-suited to examine developmental questions. In lieu of focusing on how to eliminate or sharply reduce reliance on convenience samples within developmental science, here we propose how to augment their advantages when it comes to understanding population effects as well as subpopulation differences. Although all convenience samples have less clear generalizability than probability samples, we argue that homogeneous convenience samples have clearer generalizability relative to conventional convenience samples. Therefore, when researchers are limited to convenience samples, they should consider homogeneous convenience samples as a positive alternative to conventional (or heterogeneous) convenience samples. We discuss future directions as well as potential obstacles to expanding the use of homogeneous convenience samples in developmental science.
Maltreatment-related childhood adversity is the leading preventable risk factor for mental illness and substance abuse. Although the association between maltreatment and psychopathology is compelling, there is a pressing need to understand how maltreatment increases the risk of psychiatric disorders. Emerging evidence suggests that maltreatment alters trajectories of brain development to affect sensory systems, network architecture and circuits involved in threat detection, emotional regulation and reward anticipation. This Review explores whether these alterations reflect toxic effects of early-life stress or potentially adaptive modifications, the relationship between psychopathology and brain changes, and the distinction between resilience, susceptibility and compensation. © 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved.
This study presents the development and analysis of the psychometric properties of the Deviant Behavior Variety Scale (DBVS). Participants were 861 Portuguese adolescents (54 % female), aged between 12 and 19 years old. Two alternative models were tested using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Although both models showed good fit indexes, the two-factor model didn't presented discriminant validity. Further results provided evidence for the factorial and the convergent validity of the single-factor structure of the DVBS, which has also shown good internal consistency. Criterion validity was evaluated through the association with related variables, such as age and school failure, as well as the scale's ability to capture group differences, namely between genders and school retentions, and finally by comparing a sub-group of convicted adolescents with a group of non-convicted ones regarding their engagement in delinquent activities. Overall, the scale presented good psychometric properties, with results supporting that the DBVS is a valid and reliable self-reported measure to evaluate adolescents' involvement in deviance.
Adolescence is an important neurodevelopmental period marked by rapidly escalating rates of alcohol and drug use. Over the past decade, research has attempted to disentangle pre- and post-substance use effects on brain development by using sophisticated longitudinal designs. This review focuses on recent, prospective studies and addresses the following important questions: (1) what neuropsychological and neural features predate adolescent substance use, making youth more vulnerable to engage in heavy alcohol or drug use, and (2) how does heavy alcohol and drug use affect normal neural development and cognitive functioning? Findings suggest that pre-existing neural features that relate to increased substance use during adolescence include poorer neuropsychological functioning on tests of inhibition and working memory, smaller gray and white matter volume, changes in white matter integrity, and altered brain activation during inhibition, working memory, reward, and resting state. After substance use is initiated, alcohol and marijuana use are associated with poorer cognitive functioning on tests of verbal memory, visuospatial functioning, psychomotor speed, working memory, attention, cognitive control, and overall IQ. Heavy alcohol use during adolescence is related to accelerated decreases in gray matter and attenuated increases in white matter volume, as well as increased brain activation during tasks of inhibition and working memory, relative to controls. Larger longitudinal studies with more diverse samples are needed to better understand the interactive effects of alcohol, marijuana, and other substances, as well as the role of sex, co-occurring psychopathology, genetics, sleep, and age of initiation on substance use.
Background:
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with several negative health and behavioral outcomes during adolescence, but most of the extant research has employed ACEs scores at one or two time points. Studies have not assessed whether latent class ACEs trajectories affect adolescent problem behaviors and conditions.
Objectives:
We used longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS, n = 3444) to assess ACEs at several time points and empirically developed latent class trajectories. We then examined the sociodemographic characteristics of youth who belonged to each trajectory group. We next evaluated whether the ACEs trajectories during childhood were associated with delinquent behavior, substance use, and symptoms of anxiety or depression. Finally, we explored whether closeness to mother buffered the impact of ACEs on these outcomes.
Methods:
Eight types of ACEs were captured in the FFCWS data. ACE scores were assessed at year one, three, five, and nine, along with the outcomes during year 15. Trajectories were estimated with a semiparametric latent class models.
Results:
The analysis revealed three latent trajectories during childhood: a low/none ACEs group, a medium exposure group, and a high exposure group. Adolescents in the high exposure group manifested a heightened risk of involvement in delinquent behaviors and substance use. They also reported more symptoms of anxiety and depression than their peers in the low/none and medium exposure groups.
Conclusions:
Repeated exposure to ACEs during childhood can have serious negative repercussions in the lives of adolescents, but maternal closeness may buffer their effects. Scholars should continue to examine the dynamics of ACEs exposure during childhood by using empirical approaches appropriate for identifying age-graded trajectories.
Background:
Trajectories of youth antisocial behavior (ASB) are characterized by continuity and change. Although numerous longitudinal studies have examined ASB, findings from person-centered and variable-centered research have not yet been integrated. The present paper integrates findings across statistical methods for a more comprehensive understanding of the development of ASB. Neighborhood disadvantage is considered as a core moderator.
Methods:
The study protocol was registered in the PROSPERO database of systematic reviews (registration number CRD42021255820). The PsycINFO and PubMed databases were examined (September 2022) to identify longitudinal studies of youth aggression and/or rule-breaking. Results from person-centered and variable-centered studies were integrated via narrative synthesis, and a systematic quality assessment was conducted.
Results:
Of 8227 studies identified, 136 met inclusion criteria. Our review indicated that rule-breaking trajectories were largely distinguished by differences in rate of change (i.e., slope), whereas aggression trajectories differed more by baseline level (i.e., intercept), particularly in childhood. For adolescents in disadvantaged neighborhoods, however, aggression trajectories differed by both intercept and slope.
Conclusions:
The respective importance of the intercept and slope differed across dimensions of ASB, developmental stage, and neighborhood residence. Neighborhood disadvantage was associated with trajectories of aggression, consistent with developmental theories emphasizing the role of person-environment interactions.
The relationship between crimes, fear of crimes, and the physical environments of metro stations are interlocked. They ultimately influence metro safety and ridership, which are essential for not only urban life quality but also the environmental and fiscal sustainability of regional management. This study mainly investigates how the urban design quality (UDQ) of the ground-level environments surrounding subway stations, both how they express (objectively) and how they are perceived (subjectively), is associated with the reported crime density on streets. To extend conventionally interested ‘broken window theory’, multi-dimensional UDQs highly valued in urban planning literature are measured for metro entrances in New York through the applications of Street View Imagery (SVI), computer vision (CV) and machine learning (ML). Significant associations are found between UDQs and crime densities overbearing the integration of socioeconomic and land use factors. ‘Person’, ‘Safety’ and ‘Complexity’ are associated with higher crime density, while ‘Bench’, ‘Streetlight’, ‘Skyscraper’, ‘Human Scale’, and ‘Imageability’ are related to lower crime risk. By bridging urban planning and criminology literature, this study provides new insights into Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). It contributes to the literature with an efficient approach for urbanists and criminologists to replicate for future studies in microenvironments.
Meta-analyses have provided major findings about developmental predictors of offending. However, there has been little focus on their relative ability to predict offending behaviour. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of meta-analyses with two aims: 1) to summarize all well-established knowledge about developmental (explanatory) predictors of offending, and 2) to sort those predictors according to their effect size. The strongest predictors of general offending were related to family/parental dimensions. Delinquent peers, school/employment problems, family problems, certain types of mental health problems, and alcohol/substance abuse were the most important predictors of persistence in crime. Our findings suggest the crucial role of family-related developmental predictors in preventing offending. The predictors of persistence in crime highlight the multisystemic nature of persistent antisocial behaviour.
Some developmental criminologists have focused on the influence of risk factors in an early stage of one’s life to explain criminal behavior and provide catered intervention. However, relatively less attention has been made to situational risk factors in developmental criminology. Recently, the Integrated Cognitive Antisocial Potential theory (ICAP) argued that both long-term antisocial potential and short-term situational factors influence one’s criminal behavior. This study formulated hypotheses derived from ICAP and tested these hypotheses using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. The findings indicate that delinquent behavior and substance use of juveniles are related to both long-term risk factors (parent substance use or food insecurity) and situational factors (delinquent peer).
Background:
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have been associated with a greater risk of later criminal offending. However, existing research in this area has been primarily conducted in Western developed countries and cross-cultural studies are rare.
Objectives:
This study examined the relationship between ACEs and criminal behaviors in young adults living in 10 countries located across five continents, after accounting for sex, age, and cross-national differences.
Participants and setting:
In total, 3797 young adults aged between 18 and 20 years (M = 18.97; DP = 0.81) were assessed locally in community settings within the 10 countries.
Method:
The ACE Questionnaire was used to assess maltreatment and household dysfunction during childhood and a subset of questions derived from the Deviant Behavior Variety Scale (DBVS) was used to determine past-year criminal variety pertaining to 10 acts considered crime across participating countries.
Results:
Physical and sexual abuse, physical neglect, and household substance abuse were related to criminal variety, globally, and independently across sexes and countries ranked differently in the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI). In addition, three out of five experiences of household dysfunction were related to criminal variety, but subsequent analyses indicate that some forms of household dysfunction only hold statistical significance among males or females, or in countries ranking lower in the HDI.
Conclusions:
This research strengthens the finding that there are cross-cultural mechanisms perpetuating the cycle of violence. It also indicates that forms of household dysfunction have an impact on criminal behavior that is shaped by gender and the country's levels of social well-being.
Violent victimization experiences correspond to an array of negative consequences including poorer mental and physical health. Drawing on life course theories of stress proliferation and well-being, we use four waves of data from the Add Health study to identify pathways of violent victimization from adolescence through young adulthood using group-based trajectory modeling. We then assess the influence of victimization trajectory membership on a range of subsequent health outcomes including depression, PTSD, clinical and subclinical symptoms, and self-rated health. Our results show those with increasing experiences of victimization in young adulthood are at greatest risk for poor health outcomes. Notably, trajectories marked by violent victimization limited in adolescence are not associated with any indicators of poor health. Black individuals and males are at particular risk for membership in victimization trajectories with the greatest risk for future negative health outcomes. Our findings demonstrate that violent victimization occurs via heterogeneous patterns over the life course with significant consequences for well-being and broader health disparities among adults.
Background:
The experience of coping with negative events in early ages (childhood and adolescence) has consistently been linked to some specific deviant behaviors, such as juvenile justice involvement or persistence in crime. In contrast, very few studies have focused on the link between Adverse Childhood Experiences and altruistic behavior. The objective of this study is to examine the possible influence of Adverse Childhood Experiences on the social behavior exhibited in emerging adulthood (specifically deviant and altruistic behavior).
Method:
The study population consisted of 490 young adults between the ages of 18 and 20, with a mean of 18.90 years (SD = .77). All voluntarily completed the following self-report questionnaires: the Adverse Childhood Experiences questionnaire, the Deviant Behavior Scale, and the Altruistic Scale.
Results:
Linear regression models found that Adverse Childhood Experiences were strong, positive predictors of deviant behaviors. Moreover, specific Adverse Childhood Experiences (physical abuse for deviant behavior, and emotional neglect for altruistic behaviors) had notable, differential effects.
Conclusions:
The prevention or early detection of Adverse Childhood Experiences during childhood could contribute to reducing maladaptive patterns of behavior and to increasing altruistic patterns during emerging adulthood.
Parental supervision has been identified as an important influence on offending. This systematic review focuses specifically on parental supervision, compared to existing systematic reviews which tend to concentrate on a wider range of family factors. The main aim of this article is to assess the precise nature of the association between parental supervision and offending. Overall, 19 prospective longitudinal studies were identified (published since 1996) which met the inclusion criteria. The results show a weighted mean effect size (ES) of Cohen's d=0.37 between parental supervision and later offending. This review discovered that studies use different types of behavior to define parental supervision. Interestingly, a larger weighted mean effect size (d=0.45) was found for studies measuring ‘level of parental knowledge’ compared to studies measuring ‘child disclosure to parents’ (d=0.33) or ‘parental rule setting’ (d=0.14). The results suggest that the strength of social bondsis important for enablingparents tomaintainhigh levelsofknowledge. Prevention programsshould aim to develop robust channels of communication that increase parental knowledge regarding the activities of their children. Future research should also clarify the definition of parental supervision, in order to make it possible to compare different studies of parenting.
This article presents an international study of pro/antisocial behavior in young adults (SOCIALDEVIANCE1820). This is an ongoing cross-continental longitudinal research project that includes data and researchers from multiple countries across five continents. It aims to explore the intercultural universality of the risk and protective factors associated with pro/antisocial behavior and psychosocial adjustment during early adulthood. Researchers from all countries involved have already translated their questionnaires, selected an appropriate team, and started the data collection process. It is expected that this intercontinental longitudinal research project will have a tremendous social and scientific impact; this study will allow researchers to overcome many limitations of previous meta-analyses, such as limiting the applicability of data to developed countries and the bias caused by combining different assessment methods. Challenges in implementing cross-national studies, and the importance of this type of study to global policies, are discussed.
Objective:
To determine the risk of long-term conviction and incarceration associated with childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and to identify risk and protective factors including associations with active treatment with ADHD medication.
Method:
All participants with ADHD who were 4 to 15 years of age during 1995 to 2005 were matched by year of birth and sex to a random sample of participants without ADHD from the Danish population using nationwide registers. Using Cox proportional hazard models, we estimated the risk of conviction and incarceration associated with ADHD in childhood and estimated associations with active treatment and outcome.
Results:
The ADHD cohort were followed up at a mean of 22.0 (SD = 5.8) years. Of 4,231 individuals with ADHD, 1,355 (32.0%) had received at least one conviction, compared to 3,059 (15.6%) of the 19,595 participants without ADHD (p < 0.001). ADHD was significantly associated with conviction (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.4, 95% CI = 2.3-2.6) and incarceration (HR = 3.0, 95% CI = 2.8-3.3). Subsequent to adjustment for various risk factors, ADHD exposure was still significantly related to conviction (HR = 1.6, 95% CI = 1.5-1.8) and incarceration (HR = 1.7, 95% CI = 1.5-1.9). Comorbidity with substance use disorder, oppositional-defiant disorder/conduct disorder, low family socioeconomic status, parental incarceration, and parental relationship status all significantly increased the risk of conviction and incarceration. Crime rates increased with the number of associated risks but were reduced during periods of taking ADHD medication.
Conclusion:
In addition to ADHD, a broad range of individual, familial, and social factors increase the risk of antisocial development. The findings imply that ADHD medication may contribute to crime prevention.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) scale and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) are among the most widely used instruments for assessing childhood maltreatment, yet the convergent validity and concordance of their maltreatment subscales has only been examined in one previous non-U.S. study. This study represents the first replication and extension study to address the strengths and weaknesses of relying on the five-item ACEs maltreatment scale versus the 28-item CTQ. Participants were 77 low-income, ethnically-diverse women (M = 29.19, SD = 6.55, range = 18–44 years; 34% Latina, 24% White, 22% African-American, 20% biracial/multiracial/other; 18% Spanish-speaking) who completed the ACEs scale during pregnancy and the CTQ at three months post-partum. We hypothesized that total childhood maltreatment scores and maltreatment subtypes would be significantly associated, indicating concordance across instruments. We also conducted sensitivity and specificity analyses to determine the extent to which ACEs maltreatment subtypes correctly predicted corresponding CTQ subtypes and performed exploratory analyses on minimization/denial (MD) and inconsistent responding across instruments. Results supported generally good convergent validity of total childhood maltreatment and most subtype scores across instruments. Sexual abuse had the highest sensitivity and specificity, while physical neglect was most prone to underreporting on the ACEs scale. A small subset of women were characterized by high MD, reflecting tendencies to minimize their maltreatment histories across both instruments and also report significantly lower contemporaneous depression and PTSD symptoms than women with low MD. This study informs strengths and tradeoffs of two well-known instruments for assessing retrospectively-reported childhood maltreatment in low-income, vulnerable populations.
This article aims to describe the most prevalent, lifelong sequences of crime, to identify developmental patterns of crime, and to evaluate the impact of childhood characteristics on each pathway. Convictions up to age 56 in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development are analyzed. The prevalence of the most frequent sequences of convictions is presented. Optimal matching dissimilar-ity and partitioning around medoids analyses are conducted to identify types of sequences. The most common sequences of convictions involve types of stealing. Four different types of sequences are identified and are predicted using childhood characteristics. It is concluded that different types of childhood vulnerabilities predict different types of conviction sequences.
The maltreatment-antisocial behavior relationship has been a focus of research for decades. Nevertheless, understanding this association has been largely based on cross-sectional designs and on juvenile antisocial outcomes. The present meta-analysis aimed to extend previous work on the maltreatment-antisocial relation by focusing on prospective longitudinal studies that have followed-up participants into adulthood. General, maltreatment and abusive intimate partner violent behaviors were included as outcomes. A total of 14 studies including 18 independent samples and 20,946 individuals were considered. Our results revealed that maltreated youth are nearly two times as likely to engage in antisocial behaviors in adulthood compared with their non-maltreated peers (OR = 1.96; CI[1.42, 2.71]). The relation between maltreatment and antisocial behavior was stronger when less covariates or the bivariate associations between them were considered, and maltreatment assessed in both childhood and adolescent years was more strongly related to the antisocial outcome. Nevertheless, the maltreatment-antisocial behavior link prevailed in the contrasting conditions, i.e., maltreatment assessed in childhood or in adolescent years, in multivariate analyses. Our results support an enduring effect of maltreatment on subsequent involvement in antisocial behavior, stressing the importance of preventing this victimization experience or, at best, the adverse consequences of maltreatment.
The concept of differential association as it is expressed in Akers’ social learning theory primarily focuses on the importance of the interactions that persons have with others in their peer group. This chapter provides a theoretical overview of Akers' social learning theory and his more recent social structure social learning extension. It begins with a brief overview of the theoretical origins of social learning theory and a description of the four core theoretical elements. The chapter then reviews the relevant empirical evidence that has tested social learning theory as an explanation for crime and deviance, with particular attention to the results from a recent meta-analysis. It presents findings from recent cross-cultural empirical tests of social learning theory. Next, Akers' social structure social learning extension is discussed with attention to the research that has assessed this theoretical extension. The chapter offers a series of suggestions for future social learning research.
Crime generates external costs for individuals and social costs for nations. This entry reviews the dominant theoretical paradigms that underlie national estimates of the cost of crime and reviews the empirical methodologies that have been employed in the extant literature. The entry closes with a brief review of empirical estimates of the costs of crime to crime victims. In the United States, the cost of crime, narrowly construed, constitutes approximately 2% of gross domestic product (GDP), approximately double the amount of revenue generated by the education sector and half the amount of revenue produced by the US entertainment industry. Some estimates of the cost of crime are as large as 6% of GDP.
The maltreatment-antisocial behavior relationship has been a focus of research for decades. However, understanding this association has been largely based on individual empirical studies or on reviews of maltreatments' broad consequences or of delinquency's diverse risk factors. To thoroughly examine the relationship between maltreatment and juvenile antisocial behaviors, we conducted a meta-analysis exclusively of prospective longitudinal studies and explored moderator effects. Overall maltreatment, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, and neglect were included, and general and aggressive antisocial behaviors were considered. The final data set consisted of 33 studies, including 23,973 youth, and 69 correlations. Results showed that maltreatment is associated with higher rates of general antisocial behaviors (r = 0.11; 95% CI [0.08, 0.14]) and aggressive antisocial behaviors (r = 0.11; 95% CI [0.07, 0.14]), and the relationship holds in the presence of potential confounders, as common risk factors and methodological variations. Furthermore, sexual and physical abuse were more strongly linked to aggressive rather than general antisocial behaviors, while neglected youth had an increased risk of general antisocial involvement. The causal mechanisms underlying these dissimilar relationships warrant further research to prevent the adverse antisocial consequences of maltreatment.
The main aim of this article is to identify systematic reviews of explanatory risk factors for violence, offending, and delinquency. Explanatory risk factors are factors that are clearly measuring an underlying construct that is different from antisocial behavior. Based on searches for articles published between 2000 and 2016, 215 relevant studies were located and screened, and 43 systematic reviews were included in the analysis: 11 concerned with crime or violence, eight with delinquency or youth violence, eight with sex offending, and 16 with dating or intimate partner violence. Twenty systematic reviews included meta-analyses, but few of these reviewed a wide range of risk factors. More systematic reviews and meta-analyses of risk factors are needed to advance knowledge. It is highly desirable to have reviews of longitudinal studies, reviews that focus on explanatory risk factors, and reviews that report both overall effect sizes and effect sizes after controlling for other risk factors.
Several studies have been carried out to investigate the effect of child maltreatment on juvenile justice involvement and future criminal life. However, little is known about the impact of other forms of adversity, beyond abuse and neglect, on juvenile delinquency and criminal persistence. The effect of early adversity on psychosocial problems is underexplored, particularly in juvenile delinquents. This study, using the Childhood Adverse Experiences (ACE) questionnaire, a tool accessing the exposure to different types of abuse, neglect and serious household dysfunction, explored the role of each adverse experience on juvenile justice involvement, persistence in crime and psychosocial problems during young adulthood. A Portuguese sample of 75 young adults with official records of juvenile delinquency in 2010/2011, and 240 young adults from a community sample completed ACE questionnaire and measures of psychosocial adjustment. Seven out of ten adverse experiences were significantly more prevalent in young adults with juvenile justice involvement than in the community sample, after matching the main demographic variables. The strongest predictor of juvenile justice involvement and criminal persistence during early adulthood was sexual abuse. Dimensions of child/adolescent emotional maltreatment and a mental illness in the household predicted a set of psychosocial problems in young adulthood. This study indicates that early adversity is significantly related to juvenile justice involvement, criminal persistence and psychosocial problems. This study also suggests that each experience has a different role in this process. There is an urgent need to screen, prevent and stop serious adversity. Future scientific directions and recommendations for policies are provided.
The predictors of violence and delinquency in childhood and adolescence include attributes of the child (e.g., temperament, intelligence), the home environment (e.g., harsh parenting, maltreatment, domestic violence, family size and structure, parent mental illness, and family antisocial activity), the peer group (e.g., deviant peers, peer rejection), and the community (e.g., school and neighborhood factors; Wasserman et al., 2003). These factors correlate with or predict antisocial behavior in multiple ethnic groups (Rowe, Vazsonyi,&Flannery, 1994; Vazsonyi&Flannery, 1997). However, there is one noteworthy ethnic group difference. The customary use of physical punishment is associated with more aggressive behavior problems among European Americans but not among African Americans – although physical abuse predicts behavior problems equally well across these and other ethnic groups. Ascertaining the nature and cause of this ethnic group difference is one of the most pressing questions for research on the development of antisocial behavior (Farrington, Loeber,&Stouthamer-Loeber, 2003). By conducting cross-cultural research, researchers can utilize the discovery of an ethnic group difference to test competing hypotheses about causal mechanisms (Rutter, this volume). In the current chapter, we consider whether the mechanisms linking harsh parenting and children's aggressive behavior problems generalize beyond middle-class Caucasians. Researchers often assume that a mechanism is generalizable across human populations, but the assumption is rarely tested. Discovering whether physical discipline and abuse are universal risk factors for the development of aggressive behavior problems has implications for theory as well as applications in prevention, intervention, and social policy.
Sufficient research now exists in the psychology of criminal conduct literature to address the long-term impact of early childhood and adolescent experiences on later adult outcomes. In the present meta-analysis, selected studies were prospective and longitudinal, tracking a variety of early childhood and family factors that could potentially predict later involvement in the adult criminal justice system. Thirty-eight studies met the selection criteria. Major findings indicate that dynamic versus static predictors are related to later adult criminal justice involvement. The older the child was at the time the predictor was measured, the stronger was the relationship to adult offending. Within the set of dynamic predictors, childhood and adolescent factors that rate most highly include a variety of behavioural concerns including early identification of aggression, attentional problems, motor restlessness, and attention seeking. Emotional concerns consistent with depression including withdrawal, anxiety, self-deprecation, and social alienation are also represented. Predictors also included family descriptors such as a variety of negative parenting strategies including coerciveness, authoritarian behaviours, lack of child supervision, and family structure variables such as witnessing violence, inter-parental conflict, family stressors, and poor communication. Results are discussed in relation to prevention strategies for targeted services that influence the probability of antisocial outcomes for children into adulthood.
This 2007 book examines several contentious and under-studied criminal career issues using one of the world's most important longitudinal studies, the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD), a longitudinal study of 411 South London boys followed in criminal records to age 40. The analysis reported in the book explores issues related to prevalence, offending frequency, specialization, onset sequences, co-offending, chronicity, career length, and trajectory estimation. The results of the study are considered in the context of developmental/life-course theories, and the authors outline an agenda for criminal career research generally, and within the context of the CSDD specifically. © Alex R. Piquero, David P. Farrington, Alfred Blumstein 2007 and Cambridge University Press, 2009.
This is the first book to demonstrate how to use the multilevel and longitudinal modeling techniques available in IBM SPSS Version 18. The authors tap the power of SPSS's Mixed Models routine to provide an elegant and accessible approach to these models. Readers who have learned statistics using this software will no longer have to adapt to a new program to conduct quality multilevel and longitudinal analyses. Annotated screen shots with all of the key output provide readers with a step-by-step understanding of each technique as they are shown how to navigate through the program. Diagnostic tools, data management issues, and related graphics are introduced throughout. SPSS commands show the flow of the menu structure and how to facilitate model building. Annotated syntax is also available for those who prefer this approach. Most chapters feature an extended example illustrating the logic of model development. These examples show readers the context and rationale of the research questions and the steps around which the analyses are structured. The data used in the text and syntax examples are available at http://www.psypress.com/multilevel-modeling-techniques/.
