Theories of Juvenile Delinquency

1. Theories of Juvenile Delinquency

2. What Causes Delinquency? • What propels youths to commit delinquency? • Complex interplay of a variety of biological, genetic, and environmental factors • Further complicated by various reactions to environmental factors • Why do only a few individuals who experience the same environments as many others actually commit crime? • Criminological theories provide a scientific way to approach and understand why people commit crime

3. Criminological Paradigms • Classical School Theories • Focus on individual free will and our ability to make choices as the central explanation for committing delinquency/crime • Positive School Theories • Embraces determinism and scientific method: Recognizes the role of forces that individuals cannot control or may not be aware of on crime and the role of science to discover what these factors are • The positive school has 3 basic approaches: biological, psychological, and sociological

4. Theories Within Classical School • Deterrence Theory • Certainty, severity, and celerity • General and specific • Rational Choice Theory • Decision to commit crime involves weighing the costs and benefits associated with that crime • Bounded rationality • Routine Activities • Focuses on the opportunity for crime to occur • Interaction of the following: suitable targets, absence of capable guardians, and presence of motivated offenders

5. Positive School—Biological Theories • Genetic transmission of criminal tendencies • Hormonal imbalances • Neurological dysfunction • Developmental Theory (Biosocial Theories)

6. Positive School—Psychological Theories • Intelligence—IQCrime • Personality types--Somatotypes • Psychodynamic Theory (Freud & psychic phenomenon) • Underdeveloped/Overdeveloped Superego • Basis for Antisocial Personalities & Impulsivity • Behavioral Theory (Skinner & measurable events) • Used as basis for Social Learning Theory

7. Positive School—Sociological Theories • Social Structure Theories • Social disorganization • Anomie/Strain • Social Process Theories • Differential Association/Learning Theory • Social Control Theory • Social Conflict • Labeling and Stigma

8. What Do We Know About Offenders? • Small group of offenders (6-25%) are responsible for majority of crime • There is a pattern of offending that ultimately defines subgroups of offenders • Serious: Commit serious property crime • Violent: Commit serious violent crime • Chronic: Commit 4 or more offenses of any type • Serious, Violent, Chronic Offenders • Patterns of offending in childhood and adolescence are related to adulthood offending • Patterns of offending can be identified through the identification of behaviors related to offending pathways

9. Developmental & Life Course Theories • The Life-Course Perspective • Human development viewed across the life span • Childhood, adolescent and adult experiences are continuous process of change • Individuals progress within culturally defined roles and social transitions that are age-graded • Trajectories or pathways=the avenue of development over time; long-term patterns of development in social institutions (e.g., educational career) • Transitions=short-term changes in social roles within long-term trajectories (e.g., divorce) • Developmental theories try to account for offender careers and their relationship with age • This area or research began in criminology during the late 1980s and began to grow over the 1990s

10. Life Trajectories • Life-course is a series of interlocking trajectories • Generally consistent • Impact all domains of life • Short-term transitions (or life events) interrupt • Transitions can be consistent or disruptive • “Off-age” transitions (e.g., teenage pregnancy) can produce disorder and change the direction of a trajectory • Key: How individuals adapt to changes • Person A may start a life of crime while person B doesn’t get involved in crime • Attempts to explain the onset, escalation, de-escalation, and desistence in offending careers • Various factors influence experience and change: individual factors, family factors, school factors, peer groups, and community factors • Research in this are requires longitudinal research and within-individual changes • Previous research often relied on cross-sectional studies • Previous research largely defined by between-group differences

11. Different Theories • Many developmental/life course theories have been developed, only three will be highlighted for this class: • Moffitt’s Dual Taxonomy • Sampson & Laub’s Age-Graded Theory • Gottfredson & Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime

12. Moffitt’s Developmental Theory • Close inspection of crime rate trends over the life-course indicate that there are two types of offenders: • Adolescent limited offenders: antisocial behavior is temporary and situational • Life-course persistent offenders: antisocial behavior is permanent and stable • Timing and duration of offending is critical aspect between the types of offenders—stable v. unstable antisocial behavior

13. Defining the Life-Course Persistent Offender • Underlying trait that begins at very early age and continues throughout life and underlies a variety of problem behaviors • Age 4: biting and hitting • Age 10: Truancy and shoplifting • Age 16: Sell drugs/steal cars • Age 22: Robbery and rape • Age 30: Fraud and child abuse • Persistence of other problem behaviors throughout life: Drug addiction, homelessness, unstable relationships, domestic violence, and mental illness

14. Factors Related to Life Course Persistence • Difference exists in individual differences in neuropsychological functions of infant nervous system • What can cause these differences to occur? • Disruption in fetal brain development/brain injury • Maternal drug use • Poor nutrition • Exposure to toxic agents • Birth complications • Lack of stimulation and affection • Abuse/neglect • Results in neuropsychological deficits (temperament, behavior development, and cognitive abilities)

15. LCP Interaction in Environment • Reactive interaction-react to environment with their style • Proactive interaction-select or create environment to support style (e.g., selecting similar mate) • Cumulative consequences-underlying trait sets downhill path in motion • Contemporary consequences-impact of trait on environment • Why do LCP fail to desist in their offending? • Fail to learn conventional prosocial alternatives due to rejection and lack of opportunities • Become ensnared in deviant lifestyle

16. Intervention • Underlying trait underlies deficiencies in temperament, developmental milestones, and cognitive abilities • Interaction with environment creates the antisocial personality and is fixed (according to Moffitt) before 18 years old • Therefore, treatment is difficult after this point

17. Adolescent Limited • Statistically, it is rare for individual to refrain from crime during adolescence • The defining characteristic for most adolescents, however, is the lack of consistency in their offending • Why do a few not get involved in delinquency during adolescence? • No maturity gap: Late puberty or access to opportunities • Personal characteristics that exclude from networks Few opportunities for mimicking

18. Explaining AL Behavior • Motivation: Duration of adolescence has lengthened, forcing those in the 13-18 age group to delay their entry into adulthood • Social mimicry: When one species adopts the social behavior of more successful species to obtain access to a valuable resource • Valuable resource=Mature status and the power and privilege that comes with it • LCP become influential in the peer structure—delinquency that was stigmatizing as a child is not normative group behavior because it provides an avenue to the valuable resource • Reinforcement: The negative consequences that result from delinquency “fit” with need and desire to rebel

19. Explaining AL Desistence • At the end of adolescence, motivation wanes because of the change in circumstance—entry into adulthood • Exempt from cumulative and contemporary continuity, so opportunities and acceptance is not an issue • Delinquency for these adolescents is considered normative rather than abnormal • Best adjusted adolescents appear to be those who have experimented and been responded to with consistent and reasonable discipline

20. Sampson & Laub’s Age-Graded Theory • Main proposition=an individual’s propensity to offend is dependent upon involvement in conventional activities • Informal social controls are the main focus of this theory • Although trajectories are influenced by early experiences, Sampson & Laub believe that social factors (specifically informal controls) can modify trajectories, reducing offending in adulthood—criminality is not solely defined by traits rooted in childhood • “Turning points”=the mechanisms that alter the life course, changing a risk pathway to a more adaptive one • Life-course development is dynamic regardless of age • The role of transitions within life trajectories generates turning points or changes in one’s pathway

21. Influencing Factors • Childhood: Family dynamics including erratic/harsh discipline, low levels of supervision, parental rejection • Adolescence: Association with delinquent peer groups, lack of attachment to school, involvement in the juvenile justice system • Young adulthood: Labor markets, marriage, prison, military

22. A General Theory of Crime • Low self-control is ultimately the cause of criminality • Low self-control results from parents failing to: • Monitor behavior • Recognizing problem behavior • Punishing problem behavior properly • People with low self-control will constantly be involved in delinquency and other problem behaviors • Low self-control becomes “locked” for individuals at a very young age (8 or 9 years old)

23. Developmental Pathways for Females • Requires attention to the gender-specific patterns in offender careers over the life course (e.g., victimization) • Although factors influencing offending may be similar across gender, the intensity and role of these factors may differ • Kempf-Leonard suggests the following “stepping stones” for females • 1st Stepping Stone: Child Abuse • 2nd Stepping Stone: Mental health problems • 3rd Stepping Stone: Running away • 4th Stepping Stone: Youth gang involvement • 5th Stepping Stone: Juvenile justice involvement & experiences

24. In sum… • Early intervention is needed to most effectively altering offending pathways • Identification of persistent offenders is difficult and subject to inaccuracies because a small proportion of individuals who exhibit signs of offending careers actually become chronic offenders

25. Evolution of Theories • Turn of 20th Century • Physical abnormalities (Lombroso) • Intelligence (Goddard--feeble-mindedness) • 1920s-1930s • Psychoanalytic approaches to behavior • Body Types & Personalities • Social Disorganization (Beginning of Sociological) • 1940s-1950s • Cognitive approaches to behavior • Differential Association & Subcultural Theories • Strain Theory

26. Evolution of Theories • 1960s to 1970s • Twin & Adoption Studies • Social Control Theory • Conflict & Labeling Theories • Critical Theories (Feminism, Marxist) • 1980s • Social Learning (Differential Association Updated) • General Strain Theory (Strain Updated) • Deterrence (General to Specific) • Rational Choice/Routine Activities

27. Evolution of Theory • 1990s • Developmental Theory (Criminal Careers) • Life Course Theory (Criminal Careers) • General Theory of Crime (Twist on Control) • 2000s • Continued theory testing—specific v. general theories • Emphasis on Developmental Theory