Chapter 9 Developmental Theories: From Delinquency to Crime to Desistance

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Chapter 9 Developmental Theories From
Delinquency to Crime to Desistance
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Chapter Summary

• Chapter Nine is an overview of the developmental
  theories.
• The Chapter begins with an overall discussion of
  delinquency and the patterns associated with
  delinquency.
• The chapter continues with a discussion of ADHD
  and conduct disorder, and how these disorders are
  related to delinquency.
• The Chapter then turns the discussion to the
  major developmental theories, as well as an
  evaluation of each of the theories.
• Chapter Nine concludes with the policy
  implications that developmental theorists adhere
  to.

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Chapter Summary

• After reading this chapter, students should be
  able to
• Understand the importance of delinquency
• Identify risk factors for delinquency
• Understand Agnews super traits theory
• Explain Sampson and Laubs age grade theory
• Discuss Farringtons ICAP theory
• Discuss Moffitts dual pathway theory
• Evaluate the developmental theories
• Recognize the policy implications of the
  developmental theories

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Introduction

• Developmental theories are dynamic in that they
  emphasize that individuals develop along
  different pathways, and as they develop factors
  that were previously meaningful to them no longer
  are, and factors that previously meant little to
  them suddenly become meaningful.
• Developmental theorists look at social,
  psychological, and biological factors
  simultaneously.

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Introduction

• Delinquency A legal term that distinguishes
  between youthful offenders and adult offenders
  that has its origins in the concept of
  culpability.
• Except in rare instances, juvenile offenders are
  not referred to as criminals. Acts that are
  forbidden by law are called delinquent acts when
  committed by juveniles.

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The Extent of Delinquency

• Juveniles do commit a disproportionate percentage
  of the UCRs Part I index crimes.
• In 2003, youths under 18 accounted for 15.5 of
  Part I index violent crimes and 28.9 of Part I
  index property crimes.
• Delinquent pattern appears at puberty and they
  slowly burns itself out after reaching its peak
  between 16 and 18.
• The age peak in delinquency remains unexplained
  by any known set of sociological variables.

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Puberty, Adolescence, and Change

• Puberty A developmental stage that marks the
  onset of the transition from childhood to
  adulthood.
• Adolescence is a process that begins at puberty
  and ends with adulthood.
• Adolescence is a period of limbo in which
  individuals no longer need parental care, but are
  not yet ready to take on the roles and
  responsibilities of adulthood.

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Puberty, Adolescence, and Change

• During adolescence there is an increase in
  testosterone, changes in the ration of excitatory
  and inhibitory neurotransmitters, and the
  physical restructuring of the brain.
• The earlier the onset of puberty, the greater the
  level of problem behavior for both boys and
  girls.
• Around the age of 20, the transmitters start to
  decrease and the inhibitory transmitters start to
  increase. Thus, more adult-like personality
  traits emerge.

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Puberty, Adolescence, and Change

• Terrence Thornberry, David Huizinga, and Rolf
  Loeber (2004) focus on the escalation of
  seriousness of delinquent acts being committed
  as boys age.
• The overall finding is that as boys get older,
  their crimes become more serious

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ADHD CD

• Risk factor Something in individuals personal
  characteristics or their environment that
  increases the probability of violent offending.
• It is typical for risk factors to cluster
  together because the tendency is for miseries to
  multiply and advantages to aggregate.
• ADHD A chronic neurological condition that is
  behaviorally manifested as constant restlessness,
  impulsiveness, difficulty with peers, disruptive
  behavior, short attention span, academic
  underachievement, risk taking behavior, and
  extreme boredom.
• Some children diagnosed with ADHD show EEG
  patterns of under arousal similar to adult
  psychopaths.
• Such a brain wave pattern is experienced
  subjectively as boredom.

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ADHD CD

• ADHD is related to a wide variety of antisocial
  behaviors.
• Conduct disorder (CD) The persistent display of
  serious antisocial actions that are extreme given
  the childs developmental level and have a
  significant impact on the rights of others.
• ADHD delinquents are more likely to persist in
  their offending as adults, but this probability
  rises dramatically for ADHD children also
  diagnosed with CD.
• ADHD does not represent a hopeless pathology that
  leads its victims down the road to inevitable
  criminality, particularly when CD is not present.

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Major Developmental Theories

• Some theories assume that a latent traita
  master traitinfluences behavioral choices
  across times and situations while others do not.

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Major Developmental Theories

• All theories maintain that although a criminal
  career may be initiated at any time, it is almost
  always begun in childhood.
• Developmental theories require longitudinal
  studies.

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Robert Agnews General Theory or Super Traits
Theory

• In the super traits theory, Agnew identifies five
  life domains that contain possible
  crime-generating factors
• Personality
• Family
• School

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Robert Agnews General Theory or Super Traits
Theory

• Peers
• Work
• Agnew identifies the latent traits of low
  self-control and irritability as super traits

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Robert Agnews General Theory or Super Traits
Theory

• The neurological and endocrine changes during
  adolescence temporarily increase irritability/low
  self-control among adolescents who limit their
  offending to that period, while for those who
  continue to offend irritability/low self-control
  is a stable characteristic.

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Sampson Laubs Age Graded Theory

• Age-graded theory is essentially a social control
  theory extended into adulthood to include adult
  bonds.
• People who bond well with conventional others
  build social capital A store of positive
  relationships in social networks built on norms
  of reciprocity and trust developed over time upon
  which the individual can draw for support.

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Sampson and Laubs Age Graded Theory

• Life is a series of transitions which may change
  a persons life trajectory in prosocial
  directions, which Sampson Laub call turning
  points.
• Age-graded theory strongly emphasizes human
  agency.

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David Farringtons Integrated Cognitive
Antisocial Potential (ICAP) Theory

• The key concepts in ICAP theory are antisocial
  potential (AP), which is a persons risk or
  propensity to engage in crime, and cognition,
  which is the thinking or decision making process
  that turns potential into actual process.

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David Farringtons Integrated Cognitive
Antisocial Potential (ICAP) Theory

• Individuals with long-term AP tend to come from
  poor families, to be poorly socialized, low on
  anxiety, impulsive, sensation seeking, low IQ,
  and fail in school.
• Short-term AP individuals suffer any deficits,
  but may temporarily increase their AP in response
  to certain situations or inducements.

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David Farringtons Integrated Cognitive
Antisocial Potential (ICAP) Theory

• Short-term AP can turn into long-term AP over
  time as a consequence of offending.
• Desisting from offending occurs for both social
  and individual reasons and occurs at different
  rates according to a persons level of AP.

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Terrie Moffitts Dual Pathway Developmental Theory

• The vast majority of youths who offend during
  adolescence desist and there are a small number
  of them who continue to offend in adulthood.
• Life-course persistent offenders are individuals
  who begin offending prior to puberty and continue
  well into adulthood.
• Adolescent limited (AL) offenders have a
  different developmental history that places them
  on a prosocial trajectory that is temporarily
  derailed at adolescence.

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Terrie Moffitts Dual Pathway Developmental
Theory

• Adolescent antisocial behavior is adaptive
  because it offers opportunities to gain valuable
  resources they could not otherwise obtain.
• Association with delinquent peers may be
  necessary to initiate delinquency for AL
  offenders, and there is little or no genetic
  influence on AL delinquency.

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Desisting

• For some AL offenders, desistance from antisocial
  behavior is abrupt, for others it is a slower
  process.
• AL offenders desist from offending because they
  are psychologically healthy and healthy youths
  respond adaptively to changing contingencies.

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What about Adolescents who abstain from
Delinquency Altogether?

• Given the personality profiles of abstainers, it
  is probable that they are individuals located at
  the hyper tail of the ANS arousal distribution,
  and thus have excessive guilt feelings and
  excessive fear of the negative consequences of
  nonconformity.

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Evaluation of Developmental Theories

• Developmental theories offer many advantages
  because of their dynamic nature.
• Developmental theories generally integrate and
  consider sociological, psychological biological
  factors as a coherent whole.

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Evaluation of Developmental Theories

• They follow the same individuals over long
  periods of time.
• They do not rely on convenient samples.
• The can identify characteristics that lead to
  onset, persistence, and desistance from crime in
  the same individuals.

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Policy and Prevention Implications of
Developmental Theories

• Developmental theories support the same kind of
  family-based nurturing strategies supported by
  biosocial and social- and self-control theories.
• The Nurse Family Partnership is one program
  advocated by developmental theorists.
• Developmental theorists also advocate the Fast
  Track Project.
• Developmental theories tell us that human life is
  characterized by dynamism and people can change
  at any time.