Development of Antisocial Behaviour and Justice Involved Youth

Overview

• Youth delinquency definition.
• Prevalence of youth delinquency.
• Theories and aetiology of delinquency.
• Developmental pathways of delinquency.
• Risk and protective factors.
• Youth Justice System in New Zealand and interventions for justice-involved youth.
• Thinking differently about justice-involved youth.

Definitions

• Juvenile delinquency: Law- and norm-violating behavior committed by a child or adolescent.
  • Serious offenses: Assault, sexual assault, murder, aggravated robbery.
  • Minor offenses: Truancy, vandalism, shoplifting, playfighting.
• Youth Delinquency:
  • Not a legal definition but relies on laws relating to age.
  • Includes breaking of age-appropriate rules such as having sex, drinking alcohol, being in public bars.
  • Attending school, wearing uniform, etc., Parental rules: curfews, home responsibilities
  • Boundary between legal & illegal not always clear. E.g., when does school bullying become criminal violence?

Measuring Delinquency

• Official records:
  • Includes worst offenders & offenses.
  • Most offending undetected.
  • Records influenced by myriad other factors.
• Self-report:
  • Worst offenders may be missing.
  • Lying/Forgetting.
  • More complete range of delinquent activity.
  • Can improve validity by using collateral sources (parents, teachers).
• Engaging in Antisocial behaviors
  • Detected/Known
  • Arrested
  • Charged
  • Convicted

DSM-5 Diagnoses

• Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
• Conduct Disorder (CD)
• Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD)

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

• Pattern of negativistic, hostile & defiant behavior.
• 8 criteria, 4+ present over 6+months.
  • Angry/Irritable mood.
  • Argumentative/Defiant behavior.
  • Vindictiveness.

Conduct Disorder

• Repetitive & persistent pattern of behavior where basic rights of others or major age-appropriate societal norms or rules are violated.
• 3+/15 criteria - present in past 12 months
  • Aggression towards people & animals.
  • Destruction of property.
  • Deceitfulness or theft.
  • Serious violations of rules.
• Must cause clinically significant impairment.

Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD)

• Pattern of disregard for, & violation of, the rights of others
• 18+ years
• Requires evidence of Conduct Disorder before 15 years
• Pattern of antisocial behavior (ASB) persisting into adulthood

Prevalence

• Juvenile Delinquency
  • Conviction
    • Boys ~ 20-33%
    • Girls ~ 3-14%
  • Self-report - Most!
• Conduct Disorder
  • 2-10% - Higher amongst males
• APD (adult)
  • Men ~ 0.2-3%
  • Women ~ 1%

Aetiology of Delinquency (Theories)

• Biological
• Cognitive
• Social
• Many theories and risk factors; biological, psychological, social, economic, etc.
• Theories often not mutually exclusive: complement each other.
• Consensus that youth & adult criminality result from accumulation over time of bio-psycho- social risk factors.

Biological Theories

• Genetic:
  • Fathers who engage in antisocial behavior (ASB) are more likely to have children who also do.
  • Twin & adoption studies – children who have a biological father who engages in ASB are more likely to engage in ASB – even if raised apart.
• Antisocial youth:
  • Have a slower heart rate suggesting a higher threshold for excitability & emotionality.
• Brain – frontal lobes:
  • Antisocial youth have less frontal lobe inhibition, thus more likely to act impulsively & make poor decisions.

Cognitive Theories

• Thought processes
• Cognitive deficits & distortions
  • Attend to fewer social & emotional cues
  • Misattribute ambiguous situations as hostile
  • Limited problem solving skills, produce fewer solutions & solutions are often aggressive

Social Theories

• Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1965)
  • Imitate behavior that is modeled
  • Often witness ASB
  • Intergenerational pattern
  • Increase behavior that is reinforced e.g., aggressive behavior reinforced by parents, etc.
  • Inadequate parental supervision & inconsistent discipline of ASB

Developmental Pathways

• Age-crime curve: crime peaks in adolescence, declines in adulthood.
• Stability of disordered conduct over time & situation
  • Small group who have high rates of ASB across time and situations (Moffitt, 1997)
  • Compared to less disruptive young boys, highly delinquent boys (@ 8-10 years) have twice the risk of violent conviction by 32 years (Farrington, 1991)
  • Most aggressive 5% of 8 year olds: 40% still were in top 5% at 18 years (Patterson, 1982)
• Moffitt (1993) identified two main developmental pathways
  • Adolescence Limited (AL)
  • Life Course Persistent (LCP)

Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Development Study

• 1000+ people born in Dunedin 1972-73
• 52% boys
• Primarily NZ European/Pakeha
• Followed longitudinally
• Interviewed/measured at 2-3 yr intervals
• Of the males only
  • LCP: n = 47 (10%)
  • AL: n = 122 (26%)
• Typologies apply to females too but only 6 females in the LCP group
  • AL
    • Males: 122 (26%)
    • Females: 78 (18%)
  • LCP
    • Males: 47 (10%)
    • Females: 6 (1%)

Life Course Persistent

• Characterised by continuity
• Conduct problematic from childhood, & persists into middle age
• ASB just changes with age
• “… biting and hitting at age 4, shoplifting and truancy at age 10, selling drugs and stealing cars at age 16, robbery and rape at age 22, and fraud and child abuse at age 30” (Moffitt, 1993, p. 679)
• Smaller group
• Account for a large amount of offending (diverse)
• “… The most persistent 5% to 6% of offenders are responsible for about 50% of known crime” (Moffitt, 1993, p. 676)
• Contemporary continuity:
  • Traits that made them vulnerable as children are carried into adulthood
  • E.g., high activity levels; irritability; poor self-control
• Cumulative consequences:
  • Accumulation of problems that increase the risk of offending
  • E.g., behavioral problems at school à poor academic achievement à fewer employment opportunities
• Theory & evidence for LCP development (Moffitt)
  • Inherited risk factors, or factors developing early interact with (other) environmental risk factors
  • Begin with interactions between “problem children and problem parents”

Temperament

• Describes how a child reacts to the environment
• “Difficult” temperament linked to aggression & delinquency
• Irritability, reactivity to stress, impulsivity, slow to learn & achieve milestones
• Parents respond negatively

‘Problem Children’

• Born with subtle neuropsychological deficits, e.g.
  • Clumsy, awkward
  • Overactive
  • Inattentive
  • Impulsive
  • Erratic biorhythms
  • Slow to learn
  • Irritable
  • Difficult to soothe
• Children’s characteristics are exacerbated by caregivers
  • “Difficult”, unrewarding children
  • Parents share child temperament
  • Inconsistent, irritable
  • Least-suited to challenging parenting
  • So vulnerable children get exacerbating home environment

Parenting/Family Risk Factor

• Extensive research, better established than inherited individual factors
• Families lack harmony, emotional warmth, acceptance
• Inconsistent & coercive parenting
• Too strict, or too permissive
• Child abuse & neglect
• Interacts with child’s temperament
• Cambridge study
  • Poor parenting of 8-year-olds doubled risk of later juvenile conviction
  • Harsh or erratic parental discipline
  • Cruel, passive, or neglectful parental attitude
  • Poor parental supervision
• Rochester Youth Development Study
  • Child maltreatment before 12 predicted self-reported violence 14-18 yrs
  • Why?
    • Genetic inheritance of traits/dispositions
    • Harsh family environment models aggressive, criminal behaviour
• Is criminal risk genetically transmitted?
  • Intergenerational criminality
  • Cambridge study of delinquent boys found 6% of families accounted for 50% of recorded crimes
  • Correlation between father & son criminality was $0.43$
• Twin studies
  • Identical (MZ) twins concordance rate > fraternal (DZ) twins
  • MZ 30-50% vs. approx 15% for DZ
• Adoption studies
  • Children from criminal biological parent > criminality than children from noncriminal biological parent
  • 20% vs. 13.5% (Andrews & Bonta, 2010)
  • Rates of criminality increase with parental convictions
• Neurocognitive risk factors
  • Lower verbal intelligence associated with development of criminal behaviour
  • Leads to poor school performance which leads to antisocial peer association, & poor employment prospects
• Community studies also suggest impairment in spatial functioning (e.g., block design, spatial memory)
  • So verbal as well as broader issues with cognitive functioning for LCP offenders
• Prognosis for LCP?
  • Issues across settings: Home, school, community, work, social
  • Substance abuse
  • Poor employment history
  • Debts
  • Homelessness
  • Drunk driving
  • Violent assaults
  • Multiple & unstable relationships
  • Spouse abuse
  • Abandoned, neglected & abused children
  • Psychiatric issues

Adolescence Limited

• Disordered conduct emerges in adolescence
• Most stop in early adulthood
• Discontinuity & instability
• Change is often abrupt across age particularly during onset & desistence
• May lack consistency across situations
• 70% of general population (Moffitt, 1993)
• Large group but account for small amount of total offending over time
• Brevity of crime careers should not obscure the prevalence in population or gravity of their crimes
• Equal to LCP in range & frequency of laws broken & number of Youth Court appearances during adolescence
• Seriousness of crime
  • During adolescence, serious acts carried out by both LCP & AL
  • So cannot distinguish between LCP & AL based on seriousness of ASB during adolescence
  • Distinguish based on course of ASB
• Moffitt’s AL theory
  • Emerges alongside puberty, relates to “maturity gap”
  • AL males & females’ have near normative backgrounds
  • See LCP children acting like adults (breaking rules)
  • Think delinquency is “cool”
  • LCP peers = model & reinforce delinquency
  • LCP kids were already delinquent Social rejection by peers Hang out with other delinquents
• AL offenders desist in adulthood
  • Do not have cumulative negative effects of risk factors / poor behavioral history
  • Responsive to contingencies, changes
  • Reinforcing in adolescence to be delinquent
  • In adulthood other things become reinforcing
  • Avoid being snared in web of cumulative consequences that hit LCP offenders
• What is the “other” made up of?
  • 64% of the sample
  • 8% very antisocial children whose behavior was no longer extreme in adolescence (“recovery”)
  • 5% who had engaged in no ASB from 5- 18 years (“abstainers”)
  • 51% were “normative”: Fitted no other pattern (close to group mean at all ages)
• Moffitt (2007) Reviewing research since her 1993 theory
  • “Recovery” group from Dunedin Steady decrease in symptoms from childhood over time
  • “Childhood-limited” (Raine et al., 2005; Pittsburgh)
  • Low level chronics (Nagin & Land, 1993; Cambridge)
  • Abstainers Rare
• Exceptions to the theory
  • Small number abstain from antisocial activity or engage in very little
  • Unusual (Moffitt, 1997)
    • Not aware of maturity gap
    • Late puberty
    • Access to adult privileges & activities
    • Limited opportunity to learn delinquent behavior
    • Personal characteristics exclude them from delinquent group (e.g., nervous, withdrawn, few friends)
    • May not be due to good adolescent development

Other Pathways Models E.g., Loeber & colleagues

• Pathways for specific antisocial behaviors
• Loeber & colleagues identify 3 delinquent/disruptive pathways
  • Overt Pathway
    • Aggression
  • Covert Pathway
    • Dishonesty/property
  • Authority Conflict Pathway
    • Oppositional/defiant

Overt Pathway

• Stage 1: Starts with minor aggression
• Stage 2: Physical fights
• Stage 3: Severe violence (Stage 4: Homicide)

Covert Pathway

• Stage 1: Starts before 15 yrs with minor covert acts
• Stage 2: Property damage
• Stage 3: Moderate delinquency
• Stage 4: Serious delinquency

Authority Conflict Pathway

• Stage 1: Starts before 12yrs with stubborn behavior
• Stage 2: Defiance & disobedience
• Stage 3: Authority avoidance

Risk Factors

• Variables/Characteristics of individuals and/or their environment (e.g., family, neighborhood) that increase the probability of an adverse outcome
• One risk factor is rarely enough to lead to ASB
• Usually require the presence of multiple risk factors, which often interact
• Presence of multiple risk factors does not guarantee ASB will occur
• Risk factors precede evidence of the outcome
• Risk factors predict outcome (statistically)
• Not necessarily causal factors

Individual Risk Factors

• Maternal substance use during pregnancy: Drugs, alcohol & cigarette smoking
• Delivery/birth complications
• Temperament: ‘Difficult’, hyperactive, attention problems, impulsivity, risk-taking
• Substance use
• Low verbal intelligence & delayed language development
• Presence of aggressive behavior in childhood (before 13 years)

Familial Risk Factors

• Poor parental supervision & monitoring
• Inconsistent & harsh/abusive discipline
• Low parental involvement
• Parental conflict
• Child abuse, neglect & maltreatment
• Parental aggression
• Poor parental attachment
• Parental loss or divorce
• Parental mental health problems
• Heavy parental alcohol use
• Family criminality

School & Peer Risk Factors

• School risk factors:
  • Poor academic achievement
  • Low school commitment
  • Low educational aspirations
  • Truancy or not attending school
  • Suspension & expulsions
• Peer risk factors:
  • Associating with antisocial peers
  • Peer approval/support of antisocial behavior
  • Gang affiliation

Community Risk Factors

• Low SES neighborhood
• Opportunity to witness ASB
• Opportunity to learn
• Opportunity to associate with antisocial peers
• ASB may be reinforced
• May have increased access to weapons

Protective Factors

• Resilience: Ability to overcome stress & adversity (Winfield, 1994)
• Variables/Characteristics that buffer effects of risk factors
• Can prevent high-risk child from developing into delinquent youth
• Associated with reduced likelihood of a negative outcome occurring (e.g., ASB)
• Can be within individual and/or environment

Individual Protective Factors

• Intelligence (above- average) & commitment to education
• Values, beliefs & attitudes rejecting of ASB
• Perception peers do not tolerate ASB
• Utilize flexible coping skills, problem solving, conflict resolution, anger management & critical thinking
• Sense of control, reflective rather impulsive
• Sociable, social skills
• Positive/easy temperament
• Seek social support
• Being female
• Good planning

Familial Protective Factors

• Positive parent & home environment qualities
• Parental supervision
• Clear & consistent discipline/parenting
• Supportive relationship with any adult
• Secure attachment to an important other
• Positive adult role models (despite adversity)

School & Peer Protective Factors

• School
  • Commitment to school & academic achievement
  • Bonding to school values/norms
  • Academic success
  • Participation in extra curricula activities e.g., sport, clubs, etc.
  • Success at non-delinquent activities
• Peer
  • Associating with prosocial peers
  • Non-delinquent peer support
• Accumulation of bio-psycho-social risk factors vs protective factors implicated in disposition for ASB, including youth offending
• Interplay between individual & situation/ environment
• Distinct developmental trajectories
• Early onset have greater individual & family risk factors (but not necessarily peer risk factors)
• Adolescent onset: peer association more influential

Youth Justice System in NZ

• Recognises children & youth as developmentally different to adults
• Accountability
• Responsibility & consequences for actions
• Restitution/Compensation
• Rehabilitation

Child & Youth Offending in Aotearoa New Zealand

• Children (10 - 13 years)
  • 10+year olds - can only be prosecuted for murder & manslaughter
  • 12-13 years: Offences with maximum penalty of 14+ years e.g., arson & aggravated robbery
• Young people/Youth 14 - 17 years
  • Can be charged with any offence

NZ Statistics

• Majority are male 70-80%
  • Gap between males & females is slowly closing
• Majority are apprehended for minor offences e.g., theft, breaking & entering, property damage, traffic
• Trends
  • Property offences consistently most common
  • Increasing youth apprehension for violence
  • Overall decline in apprehensions for children & youth
    • Dropped 59% between 2009/10 & 2016/17 for 10-13 year olds
    • Dropped 63% between 2009/10 & 2016/17 for 14-16 year olds

Youth Justice System in NZ

• Alternative action
• Family Group Conference (FGC)
• Youth Court
• Alternative Action
  • Police Youth Aid
    • Warning or caution
    • Diversion
      • Flexible – any action that will likely reduce reoffending, e.g.
        • Informal community work
        • Counselling
        • Agreements to pay reparation, apology letters, school attendance, complete assignment

Family Group Conferences

• FGC Ministry for Children Oranga Tamakiri (MCOT; formally CYF)
• Also focus on accountability, responsibility, & rehabilitation
• Two types
  • Intention to charge
  • Court ordered

Attendees

• Young person, family/whanau, support
• Youth Justice Coordinator (YJC) & YJ Social Worker
• Youth Advocate (lawyer), Lay Advocate
• Police &/or victim/s
• Other parties with relevant information

Outcomes

• Make recommendations e.g., apology, reparation, community service, donation to charity, curfew, intervention services (counselling or training)
• Discontinue proceedings, formal caution
• If Court ordered FGC then plan returns to Youth Court for approval

Youth Court

• More informal than adult court
• Must be charged
• Serious cases
• Closed Court
• Judge
• Family/whānau & support
• Police &/or victim/s, Youth Advocate (lawyer), Lay Advocate, MCOT
• Others with judge’s permission

Cases

• Cases are ‘proven’ in the youth court
• Transfers
  • High Court for murder & manslaughter
  • Adult court for sentencing if case is proven or if opt for jury trial
• Can have defended hearing if denies charge
• If charges proved then court ordered FGC is held & FGC plan is approved by Court

Outcomes

• Discharge
• Fines & other restitution
• Rehabilitation
  • Parenting programmes
  • Mentoring programmes
• Orders
  • Community work
  • Supervision with activity
  • Supervision with residence

Specialist

• Specialist - e.g., Rangatahi, Pasifika,
• Intensive Monitoring (IMG)

Justice Involved Youth: Interventions

• Primary intervention strategies
  • Groups of at risk children & families
  • Implemented prior to delinquency
  • Aim to reduce likelihood ASB will occur later
• Secondary interventions
  • Strategies for those with identified behavior problems (e.g., Police, school)
  • Attempt to reduce frequency
• Tertiary interventions
  • Attempt to reduce recurrence
• Intervention
  • Focusing on LCP/persistent group
  • Need for early intervention is indicated
  • Needs will vary
  • Treatment plan should be individualised
  • Informed by assessment (psychological perspective)
• Intervention
  • Research shows interventions with youth are more effective than detention & deterrence
  • Outcomes range (odds ratio (OR) $0.58 - 6.99$)
  • Mean effect in favor of treatment (OR $1.34$)
  • Behavioral & cognitive-behavioral treatments perform above average (OR $1.73$)
  • Purely deterrent & supervisory interventions can have slightly negative outcomes (OR $0.85$)

Intervention

• Need to address identified (diverse) needs, e.g.
  • Delinquent behavior
  • Social skills deficits
  • Poor self-control
  • Difficulties perspective taking & decision making
  • Mild intellectual difficulties
  • Trauma experiences
• Occur in family and broader social contexts
• Goal – improve well-being, reduce risk, desistance
• Interventions
  • Developmentally appropriate
  • Address Offending: Reduce risk of reoffending
  • Comorbid issues
  • Address range of areas of functioning & multi-modal
  • Social/community
  • Family/caregivers
  • Individual
  • Evidence based
• Intervention
  • Common types of interventions include:
    • Social skills programs
    • Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) e.g., Anger
    • Parenting programs
    • Family therapy e.g., Multisystemic Therapy (MST)
    • Alternative/vocational education
    • Prosocial activities
    • Intervention for mental health or substances (alcohol & other drugs)
• Components of effective intervention
  • 4 main components
    • Program factors e.g., type of program, intensity/dosage
    • Treatment context e.g., community vs. custody, institutional climate
    • Individual (offender) factors e.g., treatment motivation, profile of delinquency
    • Evaluation methods e.g., quality of design evaluation, sample size
• Family therapy - Multisystemic Therapy (MST)
  • 24/7, 6 months, occurs in family home
  • Not manualized, core principles, thus flexible
  • Treatment integrity - close supervision
  • Based on Social Learning Theory & Systems Theory
    • Systemic view
    • Family communication
    • Parenting support/skills
    • Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
• Other interventions, e.g., Functional Family Therapy
  • Family-based intervention, based on Family Systems Theory
  • Focus is communication patterns - modify the maladaptive patterns & increase adaptive behaviors
  • 8–12 x 1 hour sessions over approx. three months
  • Allows flexibility: can adapt to individual
  • As family progresses, expands to include multiple family & community systems
  • Treatment integrity - close supervision
• Bootcamps
  • Modeled after military training
  • Strict schedules
  • Group discipline
  • Drills & strenuous physical activity
• Bootcamps - Outcomes
  • “…Not proven to be effective or appropriate for treating juvenile delinquents….”
  • Made no difference to recidivism or increased recidivism
  • Reoffend more quickly
  • Some support for those with aftercare and/or therapeutic components
  • Psychological improvements e.g., improved attitude, educational achievement & physical fitness
  • Short-term, no lasting change

Effective Interventions

• Focus on behavioral functioning
• Multi-dimensional treatment
• Professionally guided program integrity
• Not manualized, flexible but follow core principles
• Treatment approaches: CBT: social skills, problem solving
• Family Systems and Social Learning Theory
• Treatment framework which builds on youth’s strengths Good Lives Model
• Social climate
  • Relationship with staff: ‘authentic’ caregivers
  • Relationships with peers
  • Rules and practices: consistent and coherent rules
  • Motivation to engage
  • Increase locus of control

Summary

• Delinquency refers to law- & norm- violating behaviors
• Delinquent behavior is common in adolescence
• Small group persist - pattern emerges from childhood-adolescence-adulthood
• Pathways of Moffitt & Loeber
• Require multiple risk factors
• Protective factors can help overcome adversity & reduce risk
• Assessment
  • Broad approach to meet multiple areas of need & risk – informs intervention
• Treatment
  • Primary, secondary & tertiary interventions
  • Evidence based interventions
  • Tend to involve:
    • Social Learning Theory, Systems Theory, program integrity – staff & supervision, core principles but flexible, multi-modal & component, etc.
    • Build skills so individual & family can function independent of therapist