Criminal Behavior: A Psychological Approach - Chapter 2 Study Notes

Criminal Behavior: A Psychological Approach - Chapter 2 Notes

Origins of Criminal Behavior: Developmental Risk and Protective Factors

Written Reading Response

Due: Monday, September 15th
- Task: Discuss the concept of temperament and its role in the development of criminal potential and offending.

Behavioral Risk Factors Versus Explanatory Risk Factors

Risk factors: Characteristics or experiences that increase the likelihood of antisocial or criminal behavior.
- Behavioral risk factors: Early manifestations of offending behavior; considered redundant.
- Examples:
  - School bullying
  - Aggressiveness
  - Truancy
  - Delinquency
- Explanatory risk factors: Insight into causal mechanisms leading to increased risk of offending.
- Examples:
  - High impulsivity
  - Low empathy
  - Underdeveloped moral reasoning
  - Poor parental supervision
Protective factors: Personal characteristics or experiences that mitigate serious antisocial behavior.

Examples of Explanatory Risk Factors

Personality Traits and Psychological Mechanisms
- Low Temperament and Poor Impulse Control
- Low Verbal Intelligence
- Attitudes, Beliefs, Meanings, and Emotions
  - Low Empathy
  - Callousness
  - Remorselessness
  - Unemotionality
  - Social Cognition: Hostile attributions and aggressive cognitive scripts
Parental Factors
- Family history of criminality
- Being born to young parents
- Parental substance use
Child Rearing Factors
- Parental coldness
- Low parental supervision/monitoring
- Physical abuse or neglect
- Coercive parenting
- Failure in attachment
- Low parental reinforcement
- Lack of family involvement
Socioeconomic Factors
- Low family income
- Large family size
- Broken families
Peer Factors
- Associating with delinquent peers (e.g., street gangs)
- Peer rejection
- Exposure to bullying
School Factors
- Attending high-delinquency-rate schools
- Academic failure
Neighborhood Factors
- Living in high-crime neighborhoods
- Exposure to guns, drugs, and violence
- Community impoverishment

Societal Contexts and Structural Factors

These factors shape psychological mechanisms associated with crime.
- Influence on psychological mechanisms:
- Social contexts may determine the threshold for triggering psychological mechanisms.
- Different cultural contexts may attach varying moral values to community obligations and family networks, impacting causal mechanisms that lead to crime (Wikström, 2004).
Key Concept: "Code of the Street" by Anderson (2000).

Causality Versus Correlation

Challenges in disentangling the influence of specific risk factors (e.g., impulsivity) compared to other correlated factors.

Cross-Cultural Aspects of Criminal Causes

Findings by De Ribera et al. (2019): Support for cross-cultural universality in correlates of youth violence such as:
- Male gender
- Childhood conduct problems
- Impulsivity
- Substance use
- Exposure to violent media
- Suicidality
- Violent victimization
- Poor parental supervision
- Parental substance use
- Association with delinquent peers
- Low school attachment
- High neighborhood crime and poverty.
Murray et al. (2018): Examined longitudinal studies across 14 low and middle-income countries to find developmental risk factors consistent with Western high-income countries, such as:
- Low self-control
- Hyperactivity
- Sensation seeking
- Conduct problems
Findings are mixed for other risk factors, e.g.:
- Health-related risk factors (premature birth, lead exposure)
- Poor educational performance
- Childhood maltreatment
- Large family size
- Low maternal education
- Family poverty

Comparing Cumulative Risk and Developmental Cascade Models

Cumulative Risk Model
- Exposure to multiple risk factors increases the likelihood of developing antisocial and maladaptive behaviors.
- Key Characteristics:
  - Also referred to as the multiple risk model
  - Predicts negative emotional and mental health outcomes across the lifespan
  - Focuses on harmful influences heightening risk
  - Emphasizes identification of children facing multiple risk factors
Developmental Cascade Model
- Also known as the dynamic cascade model.
- Development in one domain affects development in other areas, emphasizing protective factors.
- Key Characteristics:
  - Predicts negative behavioral outcomes and also positive outcomes
  - Interactive approach to assessing developmental risks
  - Focuses on promoting competence and resilience
  - Involves timely interventions to create positive developmental pathways.

Policy and Intervention Implications

Cumulative Risk Model Implications:
- Supports broad policies aimed at reducing risk exposure (e.g. social safety nets, early childhood programs).
- Focus on societal risk loads.
Cascade Model Implications:
- Informs targeted interventions at specific developmental transitions (e.g. support during school entry or adolescence).
- Emphasizes strategic timing in interventions and justifies long-term investments in prevention for future cost savings.

Resilience

Definition: An individual protective factor or adaptation that resists the influence of multiple risk factors.
Three Conditions for Resilience:
- Significant threats
- Positive adaptation
- Sufficient protective factors
Examples of Resilience:
- Temperamental characteristics
- Self-control
- Cognitive competence
- School engagement
- Attachment to parents
- Religious involvement
- Participation in supervised prosocial activities
- Social competence
- Prosocial peers

Family Risk and Protective Factors

Poverty:
- Adverse effects on child development; linked with numerous influences termed poverty cofactors.
- Individuals in poverty more likely to be victimized than to offend.
Single-Parent Households:
- The importance of considering interacting variables rather than just family structure.

Parental Styles and Practices

Parental Practices: Behavioral patterns of parents.
Four Types of Parenting Styles:
1. Authoritarian
2. Permissive
3. Authoritative
4. Neglectful

Parental Monitoring

Poor parental monitoring is a significant risk factor for delinquency, especially during middle school years.
Positive parent-youth relationships are crucial.

Parental Psychopathology

Factors that may influence child development include:
- Depression
- Alcoholism
- Domestic violence
- Child abuse and neglect

Associations with Antisocial Peers

Peer influence is a strong predictor of adolescent substance use and delinquent behavior.
Increased susceptibility to peer influence occurs during adolescence.

Peer Rejection

Early rejection by peers is a strong predictor of later antisocial behavior, especially when combined with aggression.
Impacts relational aggression, particularly in girls, and reduces opportunities to learn social/interpersonal skills.

Psychological and Behavioral Risk Factors

Preschool Experiences: The quality of caregiving is essential.
Academic Failure: Has a cascading effect on achievements, e.g., reading skills.
Lack of Empathy: Related to understanding others’ perspectives; involves development of the theory of mind.
Language Deficiencies: May hinder socialization and increase frustration.
- Protective Factors: High intelligence inversely correlates with delinquency.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Key behaviors include:
1. Inattention
2. Impulsivity
3. Excessive motor activity
ADHD and antisocial behavior increase the risk of adult criminality.

Conduct Disorder (CD)

Often co-occurs with ADHD, characterized by a pattern of persistent misbehavior, categorized as:
- Childhood-onset type
- Adolescent-onset type

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

Classified as a disruptive behavior disorder, characterized by difficulties in emotional and behavioral self-control.

Additional Reading Response

Due: Monday, September 15th
- Task: Explore the concept of temperament and its role in criminal potential and offending.