Chapter Nine:

1
Chapter Nine

• Developmental Theories
• Life Course and Latent Trait

2
Developmental Theory

• The view that criminality is a dynamic process,
  influenced by social experiences as well as
  individual characteristics
• Developmental factors include biological, social,
  and psychological structures and processes
• Attempts to provide a more global vision of a
  criminal career encompassing its onset,
  continuation, and termination
• Difference between this theory and many others is
  that it attempts to explain what prompts one
  person to engage in persistent criminal activity
  while another finds a way to steer clear of crime

3
Questions of Developmental Theory

• Why do people begin committing antisocial acts?
• Why do some stop while others continue?
• Why do some escalate the severity of their
  criminality while others deescalate and commit
  less serious crimes as they mature?
• What causes people to begin to commit crime again
  once they have stopped?
• Why do some criminals specialize?

4
Life Course Theories

• Views that criminality is a dynamic process
• Individual characteristics, traits, and social
  experiences influence this process
• Theoretical views studying changes in criminal
  offending patterns over a persons entire life
• As people travel through their life course they
  are exposed to perceptions and experiences and
  thus their behavior may change as well
• Considered integrated theories

5
Life Course Concepts

• Problem Behavior Syndrome (PBS)
• Pathways to crime
• Age of onset/Continuity of Crime
• Adolescent-limited and life-course persisters

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Problem Behavior Syndrome (PBS)

• A cluster of antisocial behaviors which may
  include
• Family dysfunction
• Sexual and physical abuse
• Substance abuse
• Smoking
• Precocious sexuality and early pregnancy
• Educational underachievement
• Suicide attempts
• Sensation seeking
• Unemployment
• Crime

7
Pathways to Crime

• Authority conflict pathway
• Path to a criminal career that begins with early
  stubborn behavior that leads to defiance and
  ultimately authority avoidance
• Covert pathway
• Path to a criminal career that begins with minor
  underhanded behavior that leads to property
  damage and eventually escalates to more serious
  forms of criminality
• Overt pathway
• Path to a criminal career that escalates to
  aggressive acts, leading to physical fighting and
  eventually escalates to violent crime

8
Age of Onset/Continuity of Crime

• The earlier the onset of criminality, the more
  frequent, varied, and sustained the criminal
  career
• Poor parental discipline and monitoring are keys
  to the early onset of criminality
• Continuity and desistance
• Poor parental discipline and monitoring are a key
  to the early onset of criminality
• Gender and desistance
• For males early antisocial behavior is linked to
  later problems at work and involvement with drugs
• For females early antisocial behavior is linked
  to relationship problems, depression, tendency to
  commit suicide

9
Adolescent-Limited and Life-Course Persisters

• Adolescent limited offender
• Considered typical teenagers
• Engage in rebellious teenage behavior
• They eventually reduce their offending around 18
• Life course persistent offender
• Begin their offending at a very early age
• Continue to offend well into adulthood
• A small group of offenders

10
Age-Graded Theory

• Individual traits and childhood experiences are
  important to understand the onset of delinquent
  and criminal behavior
• They alone cannot explain the continuity of crime
  into adulthood
• Experiences in young adulthood and beyond can
  redirect criminal paths
• Repeat negative experiences create cumulative
  disadvantage
• Positive life experiences can help a person
  become reattached to society (social capital)
• Delinquents can choose to go straight
• Find more conventional paths more beneficial and
  rewarding

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Factors That Increase the Likelihood of
Criminality

• Weak social bonds
• Accumulation of deviant peers
• Labeling by the justice system
• Unemployment or underemployment
• Long-term exposure to poverty

12
Latent Trait Theories

• Some people have a personal attribute or
  characteristic that controls their inclination or
  propensity to commit crime
• This disposition is often called the latent
  trait
• It may be present at birth or established early
  in life
• Though the propensity to commit crime is stable,
  the opportunity to commit crime fluctuates over
  time

13
Latent Traits

• Defective intelligence
• Damaged or impulsive personality
• Genetic abnormalities
• Physical-chemical functioning of the brain
• Environmental influences on brain function

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Types of Latent Trait Theories

• Crime and human nature
• Personal traits may outweigh the importance of
  social variables as predictors of criminal
  activity
• Traits influence the crime-noncrime choice
• General theory of crime (self-control theory)
• The most prominent latent trait theory
• Shifted focus from social control to self control
• The view that the cause of delinquent behavior is
  an impulsive personality
• Those who are impulsive may find that their bond
  to society is weak

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Analysis of the General Crime Theory

• Explains why some people who lack self-control
  can escape criminality and why some might not
  escape
• Some criticisms that remain unanswered
• Tautological
• Different classes of criminals
• Ecological differences
• Racial and gender differences
• Moral beliefs
• Peer influence
• People change
• Effective parenting
• Modest relationship
• Cross-cultural differences
• Misreads human nature
• One of many causes
• Some criminals are not impulsive

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Policy Implications of Developmental Theories

• Multi-systematic treatment efforts designed to
  provide at-risk youth with personal, social,
  educational, and family services
• SMART
• Fast Track