FINAL PAPER: LEARNING UNIT 10 DISCUSSING THE DEVELOPMENTAL

THEORIES IN CRIME CAUSATION

INTRODUCTION

Criminology is a sociological field of study that focuses on criminal behavior, the

circumstances that can lead to criminal behavior, criminal punishment, and criminal
justice systems. The field focuses on why crime occurs, in order to better understand
how crime can be prevented. According to social learning theory, juveniles learn to
engage in crime in the same way they learn to engage in conforming behavior: through
association with or exposure to others. Primary or intimate groups like the family and
peer group have an especially large impact on what we learn.

. Causation only applies where a result has been achieved and therefore is
immaterial with regard to inchoate offenses. Developmental theory focuses on minor
offenders and their life circumstances. This theory posits that the continuity of
circumstances and its change over time contribute greatly to risk of offending or
resistance to offending.

Criminal behavior tends to follow a distinct psychological pattern. It is relatively

uncommon during childhood, is initiated by most offenders during late adolescence and
early adulthood, and diminishes or disappears by the mid-20's. This pattern is not
characteristic of all people since some never commit crimes and others are career
criminals, but it is a general description of the age or developmental pattern of criminal
offenders. Further, this pattern has profound implications for crime and delinquency
theories which must not only explain initiation into, maintenance of, and desistance from
crime involvement but also be able to explain why crime flourishes during adolescence.
Contributors note that traditional crime and delinquency theories often lack a
developmental perspective, fail to distinguish between different phases of criminal
careers, and tend to ignore developmental changes across the life course.

Developmental theories of crime suppose that criminal behavior is the adolescent

and adult outcome of a cocktail of problems and experiences in childhood. Poor self-
control, poor parental ability to confront difficult behavior, and poor social skills lead to
difficulty in academic achievement, a difficulty that blocks off socially-legitimated
avenues of success. These first difficulties can lead to further difficulties, as academic
failure leads to rejection by teachers, as social difficulty leads to acting out, and as
parents begin to give up on their “hopeless” children.
 On the other hand, if these are the developmental missteps that lead toward a
self-destructive and socially-destructive life of crime, then the possibility remains open
that social scientists could identify ways to correct those missteps before they cause
major developmental damage. The hope of developmental crime prevention is to restore
and reinforce a series of self-reinforcing successes — self-control, quality parenting,
positive social skills and academic success — that lead to a personally satisfying and
socially productive outcome (Moffitt 1993).
DISCUSSION

What are the five major developmental theories?

The following five child development theories are among some of the most expertly
recognized and utilized today.

Psychosexual Theory of Development

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) believed that personality develops during early

childhood. For Freud, childhood experiences shape our personalities and behavior as
adults. Freud viewed development as discontinuous; he believed that each of us must
pass through a series of stages during childhood, and that if we lack proper nurturance
and parenting during a stage, we may become stuck, or fixated, in that stage. Freud’s
stages are called the stages of psychosexual development. According to Freud,
children’s pleasure-seeking urges are focused on a different area of the body, called an
erogenous zone, at each of the five stages of development: oral, anal, phallic, latency,
and genital.

Psychosocial Theory of Development

Erik Erikson (1902–1994) (Figure 12.4), another stage theorist, took Freud’s
theory and modified it as psychosocial theory. Erikson’s psychosocial development
theory emphasizes the social nature of our development rather than its sexual nature.
While Freud believed that personality is shaped only in childhood, Erikson proposed that
personality development takes place all through the lifespan. Erikson suggested that
how we interact with others is what affects our sense of self, or what he called the ego
identity.

Cognitive Theory of Development

Jean Piaget (1896–1980) is another stage theorist who studied childhood

development (Figure 12.5). Instead of approaching development from a
psychoanalytical or psychosocial perspective, Piaget focused on children’s cognitive
growth. He believed that thinking is a central aspect of development and that children
are naturally inquisitive. However, he said that children do not think and reason like
adults (Piaget, 1930, 1932). His theory of cognitive development holds that our cognitive
abilities develop through specific stages, which exemplifies the discontinuity approach to
development. As we progress to a new stage, there is a distinct shift in how we think and
reason.
Moral Theory of Development

A major task beginning in childhood and continuing into adolescence is

discerning right from wrong. Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg (1927–1987) extended
upon the foundation that Piaget built regarding cognitive development. Kohlberg
believed that moral development, like cognitive development, follows a series of stages.
To develop this theory, Kohlberg posed moral dilemmas to people of all ages, and then
he analyzed their answers to find evidence of their particular stage of moral
development. Before reading about the stages, take a minute to consider how you would
answer one of Kohlberg’s best-known moral dilemmas, commonly known as the Heinz
dilemma.

Sociocultural Theory of Development

Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist who proposed a sociocultural theory of

development. He suggested that human development is rooted in one’s culture. A child’s
social world, for example, forms the basis for the formation of language and thought.
The language one speaks and the ways a person thinks about things is dependent on
one’s cultural background. Vygotsky also considered historical influences as key to
one’s development. He was interested in the process of development and the
individual’s interactions with their environment (John-Steiner & Mahn, 1996).

Developmental Theories in Crime Causation:

Life Course Theory

Life-Course theory focuses on individual and life-changing events over time. By

understanding why a person commits a crime, one can develop ways to control crime or
rehabilitate the criminal. There are many theories in criminology. Some attribute crime to
the individual; they believe that an individual weights the pros and cons and makes a
conscious choice whether or not to commit a crime.

Latent Trait Theory

Criminology is an area of study concerned with crime and criminal behavior.

Criminologists often seek to propose theories to explain why people commit crimes. One
such theory is latent trait theory, which suggests that criminals have a certain stable
personality characteristic that drives them to commit crime. Under latent trait theory,
these traits do not prompt someone to commit crime indiscriminately. An opportunity for
crime must present itself before the traits manifest and push the individual to follow
through on criminal impulses.

Latent trait theory, unlike other criminal theories, is unconcerned with changes in
the environment or circumstances. Latent traits are thought to be stable and unchanging
once present in an individual, always waiting to make themselves manifest if an
opportunity for crime arises.

Social Developmental Theory

Social learning theory of crime argues that some people learn to commit crimes
through the same process through which others learn to conform. The theory assumes
that people, at birth, have neither a motivation to commit crime nor to conform. The
theory then asks: Why does an individual commit crimes? Social root causes of crime
are: inequality, not sharing power, lack of support to families and neighborhoods, real or
perceived inaccessibility to services, lack of leadership in communities, low value placed
on children and individual well-being, the overexposure to television as a means of
recreation.

Interactional Theory

The Interactional Theory was developed by Terrence P. Thornberry in 1987. This

theory suggests that “gang membership results from a reciprocal relationship between
the individual and peer groups, social structures (i.e. poor neighborhood, school and
family environments), weakened social bonds, and a learning environment that fosters
and reinforces delinquency.”

Age-Graded Theory

In criminology, age-graded theory refers to the criminal and criminal activity,

specifically that crime and the criminal are not a constant. In this theory, a criminal's
behavioral trajectory can be interrupted or facilitated by certain life transitions or turning
points. Therefore, these life events, often associated with age, influence an offender's
trajectory, or the direction a person's life may go, whether this means continuing or
desisting from crime.

General Theory

A combination of low self-control and opportunity that leads to criminal behavior.

Low self-control is the result of poor or absent parenting.The result is an individual who
is undisciplined and cannot control their emotions.
Differential Coercion Theory

Differential coercion theory outlines the relationship between coercion and crime.
In this perspective, coercion is identified as a “force that compels or intimidates an
individual to act because of the fear and anxiety it creates.” such as anger, low self-
control and weakened social bonds.

Control Balance Theory

The control balance theory states control imbalances produce deviant and
criminal behaviors, and has two distinct elements: the amount of control one can
exercise over others and the amount of control one is subject to by others.

Criminology emerged in the late 18th century, when various humanitarian

movements questioned the cruelty, arbitrariness, and inefficiency of the criminal justice
and prison systems.

There are several developmental theories of criminology, each with a different focus,
implying that there may be multiple paths for a young person to become a criminal.
Some of the most prominent development-oriented criminology theories are as follows:
Moffit's Developmental theory focuses on psychological traits that emerge early in life.

Developmental perspectives in criminology are typically more psychological in

nature, with theoretical explanations focusing on individual characteristics and the
impact of familial processes on the individual. Both of these perspectives necessitate
longitudinal data, or data gathered over time for each individual.
CONCLUSION

In the preceding discussion, we looked at crime causation and the various

theories that explain how crimes in our society cause harm to everyone. These theories
aid in understanding how each individual engages in crime and how they respond to
their social environment.

Most sociological theories of crime causation assume that a criminal's social

environment influences his or her behavior. Individuals do not become criminals through
rational choice/free will, nor do they commit crimes because they were born criminals or
because they are abnormal. Critical criminological perspectives all refer to a school of
thought that sees crime as the result of social conflict, unequal power and social
relations, and labeling processes.

Best perspective that explains crime causation, the imitation of criminal models:

For example, individuals are more likely to imitate others' behavior if they observe
them receive reinforcement for their acts. Social learning theory has much support and
is perhaps the dominant theory of crime today.

It's important to understand causation, because it allows us to properly

understand cause and effect. When we know the cause behind an effect, we can know
how to employ an effect to its best use. For instance, if we know that sinful activities
cause suffering for ourselves and others, we'd be less liable to sin. There are reasons
for all crimes, though the person who commits the crime may not know the reason. The
police and the public may not know either, but if such causes can be determined through
study, then prevention or rehabilitation becomes much easier to accomplish.
RECOMMENDATION

People's intellectual and cognitive functioning change as they grow from

childhood to adulthood. These developmental stages are best explained by
developmental theories. Numerous studies on human development have been
conducted. As a result of these theories, different people may have different
personalities depending on either nature or nurture. However, it may be difficult to
comprehend why people behave the way they do. The purpose of this paper is to
explain childhood experiences using various developmental strategies.

Traits can be derived from a variety of childhood experiences, and they are better
explained by the various theories advanced by other scholars. The id, ego, and
superego aspects of personality are the focus of psychodynamic theory. The
psychosocial stages emphasize the eight stages of development and imply that each
stage is a step that each individual takes. The psychosocial stages indicate that there
are goals to be met in each location, and failure to meet those goals may have an
impact on an individual's personality during adulthood. As a result, it is critical to
understand that personality is an integral component of an individual's personality and
that childhood experiences have a significant influence on character.
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GROUP 3 DOCUMENTATION