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Lesson - Developmental (Life Course) Theories

Robert WonserIntroduction to CriminologyCrime and Delinquency

Life-Course Theories• Also known as developmental

theories

• Utilize all disciplines in conceptualizing the causes of crime

• Focus on longitudinal studies

Interactional Theory• Terrence P. Thornberry

• Emphasis on peer associations and social bonds

• Focus on school bonds

• Used to explain antisocial behavior at different stages of the life course

Life-Course-Persistent/Adolescence-Limited Theory

• Terrie E. Moffitt

• Attempts to explain the onset and persistence of antisocial behavior• Adolescence-limited offenders - Kids who get into minor scrapes as youth but whose misbehavior ends when they enter adulthood.• Life Course Persistent offenders (Chronic offenders) - Delinquents who begin their offending career at a very early age and continue to offend well into adulthood.

Age-Graded Theory• Robert J. Sampson and John H. Laub

• Focus on key events over the life course and turning points that lead to persistence or desistance from crime•Marriage • Career

• Antisocial behavior is dynamic over the life course

• Three independent yet interrelated Views of Criminal Career Development:1) Life Course Theory - Theory that focuses on changes in criminality over the life course brought about by shifts in experience and life events.

Developmental Theory: Criminal Career Development

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Developmental Theory: Criminal Career Development

• 2) Propensity Theory - The view that a stable unchanging feature, characteristic, property, or condition, such as defective intelligence or impulsive personality, makes some people crime prone.

• Latent trait - A hidden trait that guides human behavior.

• Propensity - An innate natural inclination or tendency to behave in a particular way or pattern.

3) Trajectory Theory - The view that there are multiple independent paths to a criminal career and that there are different types and classes of offenders.•Offending trajectories•Pathways to crime

Trajectory Theory

• Authority conflict pathway - Pathway to deviance that begins at an early age with stubborn behavior and leads to defiance and then to authority avoidance.• Covert pathway - Pathway to a criminal career

that begins with minor underhanded behavior, leads to property damage, and eventually escalates to more serious forms of theft and fraud.• Overt pathway - Pathway to a criminal career that

begins with minor aggression, leads to physical fighting, and eventually escalates to violent crime.

Pathways

Foundations of Developmental Theory

• Population Heterogeneity versus State Dependence•Population heterogeneity•The propensity to commit crime is stable.

•State dependence•The propensity to commit crime is constantly changing.

Foundations of Developmental Theory

• Relationships and behaviors determine adult life course. •Children learn conformity to social rules and to function effectively in society.• Later begin careers, leave parental homes, find permanent relationships, and marry and begin families.• Transitions take place in order.

Life-Course Fundamentals

• Life-Course Theories - Theory that focuses on changes in criminality over the life course brought about by shifts in experience and life events.•Criminality is a dynamic process•Age of onset•Early onset

Foundations of Developmental Theory

• Problem Behavior Syndrome• A cluster of antisocial behaviors that may include family dysfunction, substance abuse, smoking, precocious sexuality and early pregnancy, educational underachievement, suicide attempts, sensation seeking, and unemployment, as well as crime.• Crime is a social problem rather than a result of other social problems.

Life-Course Fundamentals

• Age-Graded Theory• Social capital - Positive, life-sustaining

relations with individuals and institutions.• Cumulative disadvantage - The tendency

of prior social problems to produce future ones that accumulate and undermine success.• Turning points - According to Laub and

Sampson, the life events that alter the development of a criminal career.• Testing age-graded theory• Love, marriage, and criminality

Foundations of Developmental Theory

Foundations of Developmental Theory

• Theories that a stable feature, characteristic, property, or condition, present at birth or soon after, makes some people crime-prone over the life course.

Latent Trait Theories

• Offense Specialization/Generalization

• Age of Onset/Continuity of Crime• Criminal career starts early in life.• Persistent criminal offenders begin their careers early in life.• Early onset creates a downward spiral (The view that kids who begin engaging in antisocial behaviors at a very early age are the ones most at risk for a criminal career.)

Life-Course Fundamentals