Chapter Sixteen - PowerPoint Presentation

393 views
Uploaded On 2016-10-10

Chapter Sixteen - PPT Presentation

The Development of Criminals LifeCourse Theories Lilly Cullen Ball Criminological Theory Sixth Edition 2015 SAGE Publications Introduction The agecrime curve The curve peaks at approx 17 years of age ID: 473936

criminological theory 2015 edition theory criminological edition 2015 publications sage lilly cullen ball sixth social life crime antisocial control

Link:

Copy

Embed:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.docslides.com/embed/473936" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Download Presentation from below link

Download Presentation The PPT/PDF document "Chapter Sixteen" is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.

Presentation Transcript

Slide1

Chapter Sixteen

The Development of Criminals: Life-Course Theories

Introduction

The age-crime curve

The curve peaks at approx. 17 years of age

The curve rises steeply between 7 and 17 years of age, and then declines

The majority criminal offenders are teenagersSolving the riddle of crime causation now depended on figuring out what unique features of adolescence prompted youths to suddenly break the lawMuch cross-sectional research on this

Introduction

Longitudinal studies showed that involvement in crime during early adolescence was related to criminal conduct during late adolescence and during early adulthood

Criminal careers

Criminal career research: When does crime begin (onset), how long crime lasts (duration or persistence), how frequently crime is committed (incidence), and when crime stops (desistance)?

Introduction

There appears to be continuity and stability in antisocial behavior

What happens during

childhood is related to delinquency during adolescence.

If the roots of crime lie in childhood, than most theories of delinquency and crime must be partially incorrectSome scholars called for a developmental criminology or life-course criminologyThe research in this area was empirical seeking predictors and pathways of crime

Integrated Theories of Crime

An integrated theory typically is an explanation of crime that attempts to merge the insights from two or more theories into a single framework

The most noted integrated theories tend to combine elements from differential association/social learning theory, strain theory, and control/social bond theory

Integrated Theories of Crime: Integrated Theorizing

Integrated theories are not wed to any one perspective, and they are free to incorporate into a single model all factors that might be causes of criminal conduct

Two shortcomings:

Integrated theorizing assumes that criminological knowledge will grow more quickly by trying to bring theories together

Integration theory can lead to sloppy theorizing

Theories may have different assumptions, fundamental questions, and predictions

Elliott and Colleagues’ Integrated Strain-Control Paradigm

Draws on strain, control and social learning theories

Suggests that factors from certain theories might be important at particular stages in life

The theory posits that there may be more than one pathway to delinquency

The model began by focusing on early socialization outcomesKey feature of childhood is whether children establish strong or weak bonds

Elliott and Colleagues’ Integrated Strain-Control Paradigm

Divided the social bond into two parts:

Integration

: The extent to which people are involved and attached to conventional groups and institutions

Commitment: The individual’s personal attachment to conventional roles, groups, and institutionsThose who have strong bonds during childhood, and maintain them through adolescence, have a low probability of engaging in delinquency

Elliott and Colleagues’ Integrated Strain-Control Paradigm

In the pathway to crime, weak bonds in childhood lead to participation to delinquent peer groups, which in turn results in stable criminal behavior

However, events can occur in adolescence that create sufficient strain on a youth personally or on the social bond to cause the individual’s commitment to and integration into conventional society to attenuate

Elliott and Colleagues’ Integrated Strain-Control Paradigm

In the second pathway to crime, strong bonds initially insulate the child from conduct problems, but strain attenuates bonds in adolescence, allowing youths to participate in delinquent peer groups, and, in turn, to engage in stable criminal behavior

A s

mall proportion of youth might experience so much strain from blocked goals that they proceed directly into delinquency

Others might lose their commitment to success goals—become alienated from conventional ideas of success—and seek some adventure or thrillsMost often, youths whose bonds are strained and weakened become involved in delinquent peer groups

Elliott and Colleagues’ Integrated Strain-Control Paradigm

Elliot et al. showed empirical support for this theory

But some questions, remain:

t is not clear why social learning variables would have effects only during adolescence and only through delinquent peer groupsElliot et al. largely saw the family as a socializing agent that inculcates bonds and not, again, as a context in which social learning occursLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide12

Thornberry’s Interactional Theory

Human behavior occurs in social interaction and can therefore be explained by models that focus on interactional processes

Key causal conditions are not invariably stable over time, but rather may differ depending on whether the nature of the interaction between parents and children changes

Delinquents not only are influenced by their social surroundings but also have an impact on others through their behavior

Thornberry’s Interactional Theory

During childhood, youngsters develop attachments to parents

If children fail to develop strong attachments to parents, they are free to explore other behavioral options and encounter delinquent peers

Thornberry integrates social control and social learning theories

Thornberry’s Interactional Theory

Two key theoretical insights:

The variables in the model have reciprocal effects

Interactional processes create behavioral trajectories which can result in cumulative disadvantage

The effects of variables differ with a person’s stage in the life course

This work alerted us to the fact that criminal behavior emerges in the context of the developmental process in which the person and environment interact with one another

Thornberry’s Interactional Theory

Thornberry sought to explain why onset into misconduct might occur at different stages in the life course:

Those who manifest conduct problems in childhood

The majority of youth begin offending between the ages 12-16

The late bloomers who wait until adulthood to begin offending

Farrington’s ICAP Theory

Integrated

cognitive antisocial potential (

ICAP

) theory Integrates ideas from many other theories, including strain, control, learning, labeling, and rational choice approachesKey construct is “antisocial potential” (AP)Assumes that the translation from antisocial potential to antisocial behavior depends on cognitive (thinking and decision-making) processes that take into account opportunities and victims

Proposed

to explain offending by lower-class

males,

although there is no reason why its core construct might not have broader

applicability

Based off the

Cambridge Study in Delinquent

Development

Farrington’s ICAP Theory

Antisocial potential

(or “

AP”) is the

propensity of people to engage in antisocial conduct, including crimeVaries on a continuum from low to highHighly skewed, with some people having a little antisocial potential and a few having a lotThose with high AP tend to be life-course-persistent offenders who engage in many different kinds of

crime

Distinguishes

between two kinds of antisocial potential: long-term (LT) and short-term (ST

)

Farrington’s ICAP Theory

Individual differences theory

Antisocial potential is a relatively stable trait that people carry with them across the life course

Affects people

Farrington’s ICAP Theory

Five

sources of long-term

People are energized by a desire for material goods, status among intimates, excitement, and sexual satisfaction (strain theory)Antisocial models—found in certain social settings—foster AP (social learning)

ocus

is on poor parental child-rearing practices and on the failure to develop close emotional attachment

bonds (control theory)

Life

events can have diverse effects; thus, marital separation might increase AP, whereas entering a good marriage could decrease

AP (age-graded social bond)

mpulsiveness

Farrington’s ICAP Theory

The ICAP

model has a second component: a consideration of short-term antisocial

potential

Complete theory should address two types of variationWhy one person might be more likely to offend than another person (between-individual variation)Each individual will tend to engage in certain behaviors more at one time than at another

(

within-individual

variation)

Farrington’s ICAP Theory

Short-term

AP varies within individuals according to short-term energizing factors such as being bored, angry, drunk, or frustrated, or being encouraged by male

peers

Routines can affect access to the opportunity to offend, including targets to victimizeFinal stage in the theory is the decision to engage in a specific crime in a specific locationLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide22

Farrington’s ICAP Theory

Cognitive processes shape choices, including the individual’s perception of “the subjective benefits, costs, and probabilities of the different outcomes and stored behavioral repertoires or

scripts

Those

with low AP will not break the law even if the benefits outweigh the costs and those with high AP may commit offenses when it is not rationalLong-term antisocial potential might be increased if a criminal act proves rewarding

Farrington’s ICAP Theory

Three

key

components of

ICAPThe risk factors that lead some people to have a high potential to be antisocial over their life courseThe situational factors that cause antisocial potential to become salient and make committing a crime seem a viable choiceT

cognitive processes that either encourage or discourage the decision to

offend

Components

may have feedback effects

may

vary at different stages in the life course, and may affect the onset, persistence, and desistance of crime differently

Farrington’s ICAP Theory

Important implications for crime prevention

Crime can be reduced through:

Early intervention programs that stop the development of long-term AP

Crime prevention programs that diminish situational motivations and opportunities to offendRehabilitation programs that seek to change both AP and how it affects thinking about crime Lilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide25

Integrated Theories: Policy Implications

The policy implications of integrated theories would be largely consistent with social learning, control, and strain theories

Favor interventions that strengthen families and parent–child attachments, increase school commitment, and foster prosocial peer group interactions

However, there is the tendency of integrated theorists to focus on childhood and on development into crime

Life-Course Criminology: Continuity and Change

Aside from continuity, scholars observed that the behavior of offending can change or experience discontinuity

A key theoretical issue in life-course criminology is explaining both continuity and change in offending

Life-Course Criminology: Continuity and Change

Four types of life-course theories (See Table 15.1):

Theories arguing that there is

only

continuity in offendingTheories stating that offending is marked by either continuity or change

Theories contending that offending is marked by continuity

and

change

Theories that focus

chiefly

on change

Life-Course Criminology: Continuity and Change

Controversy also concerning whether continuity and/or change in offending is part of a developmental process

Does it occur in predictable stages (Moffitt) or is it unpredictable (Sampson and Laub)

Criminology in Crisis: Gottfredson and Hirschi Revisited

Gottfredson and Hirschi argue children who manifest conduct problems during childhood are the same ones who manifest delinquency during their teens

The major cause of low self-control appears to be ineffective childrearing

In short, Gottfredson and Hirschi proposed a theory of continuity or stability in offending with differences in self-control the main determinant of stability in waywardness from childhood to adulthood

Criminology in Crisis: Gottfredson and Hirschi Revisited

Stability is the result of persistent heterogeneity

A stable underlying individual differences that people carry with them across situations at any one time and across their life courses

Opposite of state dependence which sees crime as evoking certain reactions, changing the offender, or changing a life situation

At issue, however, is whether low self-control is a key to the individual difference that accounts for continuity in misconduct

The theory’s simplicity seems to ignore the reality that other factors are involved in causing continuity in offending

Criminology in Crisis: Gottfredson and Hirschi Revisited

Gottfredson and Hirschi allow for intra-individual change—that is, change that occurs

within an individual over time. By contrast, they argue for stability in

interindividual

differences in self-control and participating in offending and other deviant behaviorOnce levels of self-control are set in childhood, a person with low self-control will always have less self-control across the entire life courseLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide32

Patterson’s Social Interactional Developmental Model: Early-Onset Delinquency

Antisocial behavior seems to be a developmental trait that begins early in life and often continues into adolescence and adulthood

A key to understanding this development is that it is “social-interactional”

Children and their environment are in constant interchange

Linked the start of antisocial misconduct to dysfunctional familiesCoercion is a way of life and often positively rewarded

As antisocial children move outside the home, they manifest child conduct problems

Patterson’s Social Interactional Developmental Model: Early-Onset Delinquency

Three factors disrupt family management practices:

Parents who are antisocial often employ ineffective discipline with their own children

Social disadvantage seems to be related to more physical and authoritarian parenting styles

When families experience stress, effective parental management of children may be disrupted

Patterson and Yoerger: Late-Onset Delinquency

Proposed a developmental model for late-onset delinquency using the marginality hypothesis

For the late-onset group, the key causal mechanism is a deviant peer group

Late-onset delinquents are less likely to persist and more likely to desist from serious offending

Patterson: Intervening with Families

Argued that the solution to the problem of delinquency lies in early intervention with dysfunctional families

Oregon Social Learning Center with parent management training programs

Moffitt’s Life-Course Persistent/Adolescence-Limited Theory

Argued that offending is marked by either continuity

change

Antisocial behavior during childhood and shows continuity in misconduct into and beyond adolescence is related to life-course persistent offenders (LCP)5-10% of the male populationAdolescent limited offenders (AL) have no antisocial tendencies during childhood, deviate during adolescence, and desist as they reach adulthoodLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide37

Moffitt’s Life-Course Persistent/Adolescence-Limited Theory

Presents a developmental theory in which, while growing up, virtually all youths take one pathway or the other through adolescence and into adulthood

he LCPs who are the high-rate, chronic offenders marked by neuropsychological deficits

Moffitt’s Life-Course Persistent/Adolescence-Limited Theory: LCP Antisocial Behavior

Continuity is the hallmark of LCP offenders

Antisocial behavior at any one stage of development is a reflection of contemporary continuity

These offenders have neuropsychological deficits

Moffitt’s Life-Course Persistent/Adolescence-Limited Theory: LCP Antisocial Behavior

Parents are likely to share common traits with their offspring and are likely to reside in adverse neighborhoods

Use disciplinary methods that intensify the difficult children’s initial problem behaviors and that foster weak parent–child bonds

The stability of antisocial behavior also is fundamentally affected by contemporary continuity and cumulative continuity

Moffitt’s Life-Course Persistent/Adolescence-Limited Theory: LCP Antisocial Behavior

Cumulative continuity is fostered by two considerations:

LCPs have a restricted behavioral repertoire

They become ensnared by consequences of antisocial behavior

Those who persist in offending into adulthood experience unsavory outcomes

Moffitt’s Life-Course Persistent/Adolescence-Limited Theory: AL Antisocial Behavior

The clues to AL behavior are to be found in the unique features of adolescent development

Adolescents suffer from a maturity gap

The main function of antisocial acts for those facing the maturity gap is that they demonstrate autonomy

Moffitt’s Life-Course Persistent/Adolescence-Limited Theory: AL Antisocial Behavior

Adolescent antisocial misconduct is motivated by the maturity gap and is reinforcing by the reactions it evokes

Antisocial conduct is learned through a process of social mimicking

The critical sources of delinquent modeling are the LCPs

Moffitt’s Life-Course Persistent/Adolescence-Limited Theory: AL Antisocial Behavior

The vast majority of ALs do not persist in their offending

Because ALs are psychologically healthy, as they move into adulthood, they experience waning motivation and are responsive to shifting contingencies

However, some can also become ensnared (e.g., pregnancy, incarceration, etc.)

Moffitt’s Life-Course Persistent/Adolescence-Limited Theory: Assessment

Two main criticisms:

The question arises as to whether offenders can be divided neatly into two groups

Some scholars would argue that LCPs and ALs do not really exist but rather are invented when scholars take a distribution of offenders and draw artificial cutoff points in their data

Moffitt has presented evidence supporting her theory

Sampson and Laub: Social Bond Theory Revisited

Indicated that social bond theory can help to organize our understanding of continuity and change in offending across the entire life course

Proposed a theory of age-graded informal social control

Social capital is the capital or resources produced by the quality of relationships between people

As bonds strengthen, social capital increasesMakes crime too costly to commit

Sampson and Laub: Social Bond Theory Revisited

Argued that offending is marked by both continuity

and

change across time

They denied that continuity characterizes a distinct set of offenders and that change characterizes a second distinct set of offendersTen years later, they revised their theoryExpanded their analysis of the process of desistance suggesting that stopping crime was the result of the convergence of several factors and of human agency

Sampson and Laub: Age-Graded Theory of Informal Social Control

Individuals and social control processes exist within a structural context, itself shaped by larger historical and macro-level forces

During the first stages of life, the most salient social control process is found in the family

There is a strong continuity in antisocial behavior running from childhood through adulthood across a variety of life domains

Sampson and Laub: Age-Graded Theory of Informal Social Control

If meaningful social bonds are established during adulthood, they can function as a turning point that leads offenders into conformity

Strong social bonds underlie change

Stressed the importance of informal social ties and bonds to society

Assessing Sampson and Laub

The Glueck’s study of 500 delinquent and 500 non-delinquent boys

Sampson and Laub used the Glueck’s data to put their theory on the line

Sampson and Laub showed that family social control mediates the effects of both structural and individual traits on delinquency and that quality social bonds during adulthood can divert persistent offenders away from crime

Assessing Sampson and Laub

Two potential challenges to this theory:

By embracing social bond theory, Sampson and Laub attributed the crime-reducing effects of quality family life during childhood and of adult conventional relationships to social control

Could be differential association

Sampson and Laub’s perspective may be locked in continuing competition with self-control theory

Revising the Age-Graded Theory of Crime

Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives

(Sampson and Laub, 2003) extended the Glueck’s data set by studying the original data set until they reached the age 70

Two key findings:

It appears that desistance from crime is virtually universalIt is difficult to predict when desistance will occur

Revising the Age-Graded Theory of Crime

Directly challenges Moffitt’s views:

LCPs do not persist in their offending forever

Desistance is not part of a neatly unfolding developmental sequence

Revising the Age-Graded Theory of Crime

Five aspects to the process of desistance:

Structural turning points set the stage for change

These structural events create social bonds that increase the informal controls over offenders

As offenders move into marriages and jobs, their daily routine activities change to structured and filled with prosocial responsibilities

This changed, prosocial lifestyle creates desistance by default

The desistance process Sampson and Laub describe constrains, but does not full determine the choices offenders make

Individuals still exercise human agency

Rethinking Crime: Cognitive Theories of Desistance

Focus on why individuals are, or are not, trapped on a pathway to crime

The theoretical task is to explain how the way offenders conceptualize their identities and life circumstances facilitates either their continued criminal involvement or their desistance from a life in crime

Maruna’s Theory of Redemption Scripts

Maruna was interested in why some offenders had desisted from crime whereas others had not

Desisters and persisters differed in their cognitive understanding of their lives in crime

Condemnation script

Maruna’s Theory of Redemption Scripts

Redemption scripts

: For desisters is the assertion that their previous criminality was not part of who they really are deep down

The past woes help to make them a stronger person

Offenders who desist experience a fundamental qualitative cognitive transformation that sustains them in the face of dire circumstancesLilly, Cullen, Ball, Criminological Theory Sixth Edition. ©2015 SAGE PublicationsSlide57

Giordano’s et al.’s Theory of Cognitive Transformation

Giordano et al. explanation of desistance from crime

Offenders are intentional and reflective

The theory departs from Laub and Sampson in two ways:

Rather than conceptualizing marriage and employment as turning points, they use the construct of hooks for change

see agency as manifesting itself in a “cognitive transformation” that involves four cognitive shifts

Giordano’s et al.’s Theory of Cognitive Transformation

Four cognitive shifts:

For change to transpire, the offender must first develop a general cognitive openness to change

Once this cognitive shift has taken place, offenders must interpret the specific potential hooks for change that they encounter

This cognitive transformation involves attempts by offenders to envision and begin to fashion an appealing and conventional replacement self that can supplant the marginal one that must be left behind

Giordano’s et al.’s Theory of Cognitive Transformation

Four cognitive shifts:

The desistance process is relatively complete when the actor no liner sees these same behaviors as positive, viable, or even personally relevant