Developmental Theories of Criminal Careers: Life Course and Latent Trait Perspectives

1. Chapter 9 Developmental Theory: Life Course and Latent Trait

2. Developmental Theories • Seek to identify, describe, and understand the development factors the explain the onset and continuation of a criminal career • Intertwining of personal factors, social factors, socialization factors, cognitive factors, and situational factors • Two distinct groups: life course theories and latent trait

3. The Life Course View • Some people are incapable of maturing in a reasonable and timely fashion because of family, environmental and personal problems • The propensity to commit crime is neither stable nor constant • Life course theories at multidimensional, suggesting criminality has multiple roots

4. Figure 9.1 Life Course and Latent Trait Theories

5. The Life Course View • The Glueck Research • Popularized the research on the life cycle of delinquent careers • “The deeper the roots of childhood maladjustment, the smaller the change of adult adjustment” • Family relations are paramount in terms of quality of discipline and emotional ties with parents • Children with low IQ’s, a background of mental disease, and a powerful physique were most likely to be delinquent

6. The Life Course View • Life Course Concepts • Rolf Loeber and Marc LeBlanc devoted time to the evolution of the criminal career • Attention should be given to how a criminal career unfolds • People may show a propensity of offend early in their lives

7. The Life Course View • Problem Behavior Syndrome • Criminal behavior is one of many antisocial behaviors that cluster together and typically involve family dysfunction, sexual and physical abuse, substance abuse, smoking, and precocious sexuality. • All varieties of criminal behavior may be part of a generalized PBS • Unemployment • Educational underachievement • School misconduct • Residing in high crime and disorganized areas • Exposure to racism and poverty • Personal problems such as suicide attempts, sensation seeking, early parenthood, accident-proneness, medical problems, mental disease, anxiety, and eating disorders

8. The Life Course View • Pathways to Crime • Loeber and associates identified three distinct pathways to a criminal career • Authority conflict: begins at an early age with stubborn behavior • Covert pathway: begins with minor underhanded behavior and leads to property damage • Overt pathway: escalates into aggressive acts and then to violence

9. Figure 9.2 Loeber’s Pathways to Crime

10. The Life Course View • Age of Onset/Continuity of Crime • Life course theory suggests criminal careers are planted early in life • May begin with truancy, cruelty to animals, lying, and theft • Some offenders peak at an early age, whereas others persist into adulthood • Continuity and desistance: Poor parental discipline and monitoring may be key to early criminality • Rejection by peers and academic failure sustains antisocial behavior

11. The Life Course View • Gender Similarities and Differences • Like boys, early onset girls continue to experience difficulties such as drug/alcohol use, poor school adjustment, mental health problems, and a variety of relationship dysfunctions • Early onset path for males results in problems at work and substance abuse • Early onset pathways for females are more likely to lead to depression and a tendency to commit suicide

12. The Life Course View • Adolescent Limiteds and Life Course Persisters • Terrie Moffet suggests most offenders are adolescent limited in that antisocial behavior peaks and then diminishes • A small group of offenders are persisters who begin offending at an early age and continue into adulthood • Early starters experience: 1) poor parenting, 2) deviant behaviors and then 3) involvement with delinquent groups

13. The Life Course View • Supporting Research • Recent research supports Moffit’s views • Early onset delinquents are influenced by individual traits such as low verbal ability, hyperactivity, and negative personality traits • Community-level factors such as poverty and instability seem to have little effect on their behavior

14. Theories of the Criminal Life Course • The Social Development Model • Integration of social control, social learning, and structural theories (Weis, Catalano, Hawkins) • Community-level risk factors contribute to criminality (social control, disorganization, and opportunities) • Prosocial bonds may inhibit antisocial behaviors (attachment to conventional activities and beliefs) • SDM-based interventions can help reduce delinquency and drug abuse

15. Figure 9.3 The Social Development Model of Antisocial Behavior

16. Theories of the Criminal Life Course • Farrington’s ICAP (Integrated Cognitive Antisocial Potential) Theory • Farrington suggested traits present in persistent offenders can be observed at age 8 • Future criminals receive poor parental supervision and harsh/erratic punishments • Deviant behavior tends to be versatile rather than specialized • Chronic offenders experience personal troubles and family dysfunction throughout their lives • Marriage, employment, and relocation help to diminish criminal activity

17. Theories of the Criminal Life Course • The IACP Theory • David Farrington suggests antisocial potential (AP) falls along a continuum ranging form high to low AP • Long-term AP: increases are contingent on desire for material goods, status, excitement, sexual satisfaction, and legitimate means for their attainment • Short-term AP: is affected by situational inducements such as peers and criminal opportunities • According to ICAP, the commission of offenses and antisocial acts depends on the interaction between an individual and the social environment • People stop offending due to decreasing motivations, impulsiveness, decreasing physical capacities, and changes in socialization influences

18. Figure 9.4 Farrington’s IACP Theory

19. Theories of the Criminal Life Course • Interactional Theory • Terence Thornberry proposed an age-graded view of crime • The onset of crime can be traced to a deterioration of the social bond during adolescence • Delinquent youths form belief systems consistent with their deviant lifestyles • The causal process is dynamic and develops over a person’s life

20. Figure 9.5 The Interactional Theory of Delinquency

21. Theories of the Criminal Life Course • Testing Interactional Theory • Research indicates that associating with delinquent peers does increase delinquent involvement • Weakened attachments to family and the educational process appears to be related to delinquency • Children who grow up in indigent households that experience unemployment, high mobility, and parental criminality are at risk

22. Theories of the Criminal Life Course • General Theory of Crime and Delinquency • Robert Agnew suggested environmental factors and social and physical traits contribute to criminality • Crime occurs when constraints are low • Five elements of human development: • Self: irritability and/or low self-control • Family: poor parenting or marriage problems • School: negative school experiences or limited education • Peers: Delinquent friends • Work: Unemployment or poor job

23. Figure 9.6 Agnew’s General Theory of Crime and Delinquency

24. Theories of the Criminal Life Course • Sampson and Laub: Age-Graded Theory • Robert Sampson and John Laub identified “turning points” (critical events) that may enable an offender to desist from crime • Career and marriage are turning points • Social Capital: refers to positive relations with individuals and institutions, which support conventional behavior • People who maintain a successful marriage and become parents are more likely to mature out of crime

25. Figure 9.7 Sampson and Laub’s Age-Graded Thoery

26. Theories of the Criminal Life Course • Testing Age-Graded Theory • Indicators tend to support age-graded theory (i.e. employment) • Research suggests the greater the social capital, the more likely one will be insulated from crime • The Marriage Factor: People who marry and become parents are most likely mature out of crime • Laub and Sampson are following up on the original research cohort of the Glueck’s

27. Latent Trait View • Assumes some people have a personal attribute that controls their propensity to commit crime • The trait is either present at birth or established early in life • Propensity and opportunity to commit crime fluctuate over time

28. Latent Trait View • Crime and Human Nature • Wilson and Herrnstein’s human nature theory suggests genetics, intelligence, and body build contribute to criminality • Biological and psychological traits influence crime choice and noncrime choices • Their work suggests the existence of an elusive trait that predisposes people to commit crime

29. Latent Trait Theories • General Theory of Crime (GTC) • Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi modified social control theory and integrated concepts of biosocial, psychological, routine activities, and rational choice theories • GTC considers the offender and the criminal act as separate concepts • People commit crime when it promises rewards and they are predisposed to commit crime • Tendencies to commit crime is contingent on a person’s level of self-control • Root of poor self-control is traced to inadequate child-rearing practices • Gottfredson and Hirschi maintain the GTC explains all varieties of criminal behavior • Empirical evidence tends to support the GTC

30. Figure 9.8 Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime

31. Latent Trait Theories • Analyzing the General Theory of Crime • Some critics charge GTC is: • Tautological: Crime and impulsive behavior • Different Classes of Criminals: Research indicates offenders occupy more than one class and more than one factor may contribute to their criminality • Ecological/Individual Differences: Fails to address individual and ecological patterns in crime rates • Racial and Gender Differences: Little evidence that males are more impulsive than females and overlooks racism and poverty issues • Moral Beliefs: GTC ignores the moral concept of right and wrong • Peer Influence: Negative influences of peers increases the likelihood of criminality rather than reducing it • People Change: Propensity to commit crime does change and it is not static as suggested by GTC • Modest Relationship: Self control is modestly related to antisocial behavior • Cross Cultural Differences: GTC may be weak in cross-national studies • Misreads Human Nature: GTC assumes people are selfish, self-serving, and hedonistic • Personality Disorder: GTC ignores personality disorders

32. Latent Trait Theories • Differential Coercion Theory • Mark Colvin suggests coercion as a master trait for criminality • Interpersonal Coercion: involves the use or threat of force and intimidation from parents, peers, and others • Impersonal Coercion: involves pressures such as economic and social pressures (poverty-competition) • Maintaining self control is contingent on the function, type and consistency of coercion • To reduce crime society must enhance legitimate social support and reduce the forces of coercion

33. Figure 9.9 Colvin’s Theory of Differential Coercion

34. Latent Trait Theories • Coercion and Criminal Careers • Chronic offenders grow up in homes with erratic and inconsistent control • Coercive Ideation: the world is conceived as full of coercive forces that need equal or greater coercive responses to overcome • Differential Social Support: Social support may negate or counterbalance crime-producing coercion • Expressive social support (affirmation of self-worth) • Instrumental social support (financial assistance)

35. Latent Trait Theories • Control Balance Theory • Charles Tittle suggest control has two elements that when out of balance produce deviant and criminal behaviors • The amount of control one is subject to by others • The amount of control one can exercise over others • Three types of behavior restores balance for those who sense a deficit: • Predation: direct forms of physical violence • Defiance: challenges to control mechanisms • Submission: passive obedience • Those with an excess of control engage in: • Exploitation: using others to commit crime • Plunder: using power without regard for others • Decadence: spur of the moment irrational acts

36. Figure 9.10 Tittle’s Control Balance Theory

37. Latent Trait Theories • Evaluating Developmental Theories • Life course theorists emphasize the influence of changing interpersonal and structural factors • Latent trait theorists place more emphasis on behavior being linked to personal change than to changes in the surrounding world

38. CNN Clip - Drug Cartel Leader On Trial

39. Public Policy Implications of Developmental Theory • Multi-systematic treatment efforts • Programs targeting those at high risk to improve their developmental skills • SMART (skills, mastery, and resistance training)