Chapter 4: ⭐️ Developmental Pathways

Introduction

• Developmental theories of criminal behaviour focus on the changeable, dynamic nature of criminality, especially on the role of different factors at different stages of life.

• From a developmental perspective, early childhood behavioural problems, adolescence delinquency, and adult criminal behaviour are causally linked to one another.

• According to this approach, early predispositions and/or experiences interact with situational factors to set individuals along certain life paths that may, or may not, lead to crime.

• R. Loeber suggested that behavioural or psychological problems in early childhood may adversely impact socialization processes, leaving the children ill-prepared for the future (the impact of “stacking of problems” over the developmental life-course).

The Stability of Criminal Behaviour

• Longitudinal studies on delinquency identify

  • Disadvantages:

    • Expensive

• 3 note-worthy patterns, identified in several longitudinal studies

1. A small proportion of high-rate, or chronic, offenders account for a relatively large proportion of criminal activity.

2. An age-crime curve shows that criminal activity increases during adolescence, peaks in late adolescence (17-18) and declines in early adulthood.

3. The age of onset of antisocial behaviour is strongly related to both the duration and the seriousness of later criminal activity.

Gluecks’ Longitudinal Study

• Glueck & Glueck examined the relationship between early life experience and the development of chronic antisocial and criminal behaviour.

• 500 delinquent boys 10-17 years old & control group of 500 non-delinquent boys.

• The researchers collected a plethora of information, compared several variables, and followed up the participants until the age of 32.

• Main findings:

  • Boys who exhibited earlier antisocial behaviour were more likely to engage in chronic/more serious criminal behaviour across the life-course.

  • Criminal behaviour usually tailed off as the boys entered early adulthood.

Wolfang & Colleagues’ Study

• Wolfang & colleagues conducted the “Philadelphia Birth Cohort Study” (1972-1987).

• Approximately 10,000 participants, born in 1945.

• After reviewing official police records, they found that almost 1/3 of the participants had at least one officially recorded police contact. They were responsible for more than 10,000 offences.

• Main findings: A small % of participants (6%) were responsible for 52% of the offences committed. The rate of police contacts increased between 11 & 16 years of age, & began to decline after 17 years.

David Farrington’s Study

• Farrington conducted the “Cambridge study in delinquent development” (1995-1997). It was a longitudinal panel of study of 411 boys born in London between 1952 & 1953.

• At the beginning the researcher collected a plethora of information, provided by the participants, their parents & teachers, as well as official file reviews. Several follow-ups between the ages of 8-46.

• Main findings: 6% of the boys committed 6 or more crimes over the course of the study (that is half of the total number of convictions for the entire group).

• Criminal activity increased until the age of 17, when it began to decline.

• 3% of the boys were convicted at earlier ages (10-16) & tended to be the most persistent offenders over time.

Major Developmental Theories

• Patterson’s (1986) “Coercion theory”.

• Moffitt’s (1993) “Developmental taxonomy”.

• Sampson & Laub’s (1993) “Age-graded theory of informal social control”.

Patterson’s Coercion Theory

• Main idea: Antisocial behaviour follows distinct developmental trajectories. Thus, there are 2 groups of delinquents: early-onset & late-onset.

• The timing of delinquency is strongly related to the severity and stability of antisocial behaviour over the life-course.

• Early childhood is considered a critical period: Patterson considers early-onset delinquency as the start of a trend which characterizes a person’s entire life course.

• Family environment, which is viewed as prominent learning environment, which is viewed as a prominent learning environment, & a parent-child interactions are crucial.

• Patterson viewed family as a dynamic environment characterized by a series of interactions between parents & children.

• Early-onset criminal & violent behaviour develops out of a family environment characterized by coercive & ineffective parent-child interactions.

• Effective parenting includes supervision, discipline & healthy family interactions; it enables children to transition smoothly into social interactions in school & the community.

• According to coercion theory, early-onset delinquents are raised by parents whose parenting strategies are poor/inept, while the family environment is negative (inconsistent or unduly harsh parental supervision & discipline).

• Poor parental management

  • Key causal factor of early-onset delinquency.

  • Concentration of difficulties experienced by some parents.

  • Parents inept in socializing their children.

• Patterson stressed the role of coercive interactions: A pattern of dynamic child-parent interactions wherein the aversive behaviours of one individual elicit an equally aversive response from others, resulting in an escalation of dysfunctional behaviours toward one another.

• The role of the style of interactions in the family.

  • Coercive interactions begin with innocuous aversive tactics

    • Ex: temper tantrum

  • Lack of effective management & negative reinforcement

  • Antisocial conduct becomes functional & the child adopts it for interaction & problem-solving.

• Cumulative disadvantage: Early developmental & socio-economic difficulties that create subsequent developmental problems for individuals over the life-course. It is related to the failure to internalize prosocial interpersonal skills.

• Early child socialization failure is related to poor school performance, negative interactions with teachers, peer rejection, etc.

• Kids with signs of early-onset delinquency are significantly more likely to be arrested or have some type of police contact by the age of 14.

Moffitt’s Developmental Taxonomy

• Moffitt’s theory builds on Patterosn’s idea that early-onset delinquency is distinct from late-onset delinquency.

• Tries to answer why an adolescent becomes involved in delinquency, & might desist in early adulthood.

• According to Terry Moffitt, delinquency follows one of the 2 qualitatively different developmental pathways: The Life-Course Persistent pathway & the Adolescent-Limited pathway. The 2 groups are distinguished by risk factors that arise early in development.

Life-course persistent (LCP) pathway: the pathway consisting of a small group of offenders who display a persistent, life-long pattern of serious and/or violent behaviour.

• Chronic antisocial behaviour: they begin to demonstrate a range of behavioural problems in early childhood. These problems gradually increase in severity & persist into adulthood.

• Such offenders represent the minority of delinquent activity.

• Life-course persistent (LCP) pathway:

  • Offending is more pervasive & serious; offenders manifest a wide range of antisocial & criminal behaviours.

  • According to Moffitt, the etiological roots of LCP delinquency are linked to neurological problems

    • Ex: shown as difficult temperaments, hyperactivity, attention deficits

  • in early childhood, that have a negative impact on the acquisition of essential social skills. Kids miss out on opportunities to develop & practice much needed interpersonal skills.

• Adolescent-limited (AL) pathway

  • Antisocial behaviour begins in adolescence and desists in young adulthood.

  • This pattern accounts for the majority of delinquent behaviour.

  • Stable family life, appropriate early socialization, absence of mental health & developmental problems in early childhood; the child manages to obtain the essential social skills, that’s why is able to go back to prosocial behaviour in early adulthood.

• Adolescent-limited (AL) pathway

• Delinquent activity is usually limited to “normative offences”

  • Ex: drinking, petty theft, minor drug use

• in order to symbolically gain adult “status”.

• According to Moffitt, major driving forces behind AL delinquency are the pursuit of social status & the “teen angst” (maturity gap between biological age and social age).

• “Social mimicry”: a process in which 2 species share the same environment & compete for the same resources. When one is more successful at obtaining resources, the other will mimic or adopt these behaviours to become more competitive & ensure resource acquisition.

• Adolescent-limited (AL) pathway

• The role of Social mimicry: Adolescents observe the behaviour of LCP delinquent peers, who were previously rejected, but now popular, due to their autonomy & “adult status”. They assume that they can get status by copying the behaviour of delinquent peers.

• Shifting reinforcement contingencies (changes in the type of behaviours that prmpt reinforcement or rewards) & availability of prosocial adult roles (depending on the behavioural repertoire) are 2 factors that Moffitt associated with the desistance from antisocial behaviour.

Age-Graded Theory of Informal Social Control

• Sampson & Laub criticized Moffitt’s view of LCP delinquency, suggesting that she overstated the persistency of LCP delinquents criminal behaviour.

• They claimed that the reliance on childhood factors to predict long-term criminal behaviour is problematic, because most offenders eventually desist from crime.

• Sampson & Laub also introduced the concept of structural turning points to explain the termination of criminal careers.

• Similarity with Patterson’s coercion theory & Moffitt’s developmental taxonomy: people differ from one another in their individual propensities for criminal & antisocial behaviour.

• A developmental theory of criminal behaviour, developed by Robert Sampson & John Laub, which considers both continuity & change in antisocial lifestyles. Inspired by Hirschi’s social control theory, it argues that individuals desist from crime when they are subject to informal social controls.

• Informal social controls are believed to mediate our behaviour indirectly

  • Ex: commitment to school, attachment to family, legitimate career

• they are like an “investment” in society.

• These controls are age graded such that the value or effect increases or decreases at different points of the lifespan.

• People continue to engage in antisocial activities when they are not influenced by informal social control (they don’t have a lot to lose, in terms of conventional social standards).

• People often experience very significant life events, known as “structural turning points” that reintroduce the importance of informal social control networks into their lives (also related to age/stage of life).

• People desist from antisocial & criminal activity when the importance of social control in their lives increases. Desistance can be either by default/little conscious effort

  • Ex: having less time to get into trouble

• or a conscious decision to change the lifestyle (human agency, that is subjective free will & the conscious decision-making activities of an individual.

Early Childhood Factors & Delinquency

• Early individual differences may interact with childhood situational factors & increase the risk of chronic antisocial behaviour.

• Neuropsychological deficits

• Childhood externalizing disorders

Neuropsychological Deficits

• Prenatal birth complications: Developmental difficulties experienced prior to birth, caused by several factors (such as exposure to toxins during gestation).

• Perinatal birth complications: Developmental problems experienced immediately before or after birth

  • Ex: infection

• It is estimated that such complications are related to the later onset of delinquency.

• The aforementioned complications may have a negative impact on infant’s temperament; a difficult temperament is related to the development of antisocial behaviours

  • Ex: externalizing problems

• in middle childhood, & aggressive & delinquent behaviour later.

• Temperamental difficulties are believed to have an impact on the child’s ability to focus on tasks, to organize behaviour in a goal-oriented fashion & inhibit behaviour in response to positive or negative external events.

• A difficult temperament in infancy may have a negative impact on the quality of the kid’s interactions with parents, peers, & teachers. Thus, a vicious circle of maladaptive responses can be established (similarity with “coercive interactions”

Childhood Externalizing Disorders

• Externalizing behaviour disorders: A category of mental health conditions characterized by behavioural indicators such as fighting, impulsivity, lying or stealing.

• As early childhood factors they are empirically linked with antisocial behaviour.

• 3 main disorders (DSM-5)

  1. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

  2. Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

• Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: An externalizing behaviour disorder characterized by 2 broad categories of symptoms:

  1. Inattention: difficulties in listening to directions & following instructions, paying attention to details, remembering information, organizing activites.

  2. Hyperactivity & impulsivity: excessive talking, fidgeting, problems with sitting still.

• Linked to:

  • Increased risk for minor injuries.

  • Lower academic performance.

  • Higher rates of unpopularity & peer rejection.

  • Early risk factor for antisocial & delinquent behaviour

    • Ex: high prevalence among incarcerated adult offenders

  • Comorbidity with the other 2 externalizing behaviour disorders.

Childhood Externalizing Disorders

• Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD): A childhood externalizing behaviour disorder characterized by 3 broad categories of symptoms:

  • Angry/irritable mood

  • Argumentative/defiant behaviour

  • Vindictiveness

• Some findings indicate that boys with ODD are more likely to engage in antisocial behaviour & aggression in adolescence.

• Conduct Disorder (CD): A repetitive & persistent pattern of behaviour that violates the rights of others.

• A childhood externalizing disorder characterized by aggression toward people and/or animals, deliberate property destruction, deceitfulness or theft, & serious rule violations.

  • Often viewed as a precursor to antisocial personality disorder.

    • Ex: bullying or threatening, physical cruelty to people and/or animals, fighting & truancy.

  • More common among males/boys/teenagers

• 2 subtypes of Conduct Disorder:

  • Childhood-onset: (onset of symptoms prior to age 10) associated with more severe symptoms, as well as an increased risk for later antisocial & delinquent behaviour, & the onset of antisocial personality disorder in adulthood.

  • Adolescent-onset: (absence of symptoms before age 10).

  • CD is linked to adolescence substance use & delinquency, early pregnancy, criminal behaviour, & unstable employment in later life.

Parental Practices & Delinquency

• Early dispositional differences in temperament or activity do not directly cause later criminal and/or violent behaviour.

• Various early risk factors interact with environmental factors as the child grows older.

• Among the environmental factors, the family setting should be considered.

• Parental practices: The diverse range of parental behaviours occurring in the family context, including disciplinary approaches, monitoring & supervision strategies, & interactional styles.

• Diana Baumrind identified 2 crucial aspects of parenting: parental responsiveness (how parents react to their child’s needs & demands) & parental demandingnes (expectations that parents place on the kids).

• Based on these 2 dimensions, Baumrind described 3 distinct parenting styles: the authoritarian, the authoritative & the permissive.

• Lack of agreement on whether parenting styles are stable or dynamic.

Parenting Styles

Parental Practices & Discipline

• Parental monitoring: A process involving several interrelated behaviours, including parents’ awareness & knowledge of their children’s activities

  • Ex: knowing who their friends are

• and limit-setting on children’s behaviour

  • Ex: deciding how the kid spends free time

• Parents establish rules & expectations for their children & evaluate whether the rules were followed or not.

• Limit-setting is considered crucial for reducing the risk for delinquent behaviour.

• Parental monitoring can act as a protective factor

  • Ex: later onset of substance use

Peer Rejection