Laub's Age-Graded Development Theory

To be quite honest, I have never heard of James”Whitey” Bulger, and I was born and raised in the city of Boston. My family has resided in Boston since the early 1970’s and they have never mentioned him. Therefore, in order to write this paper and actually know who is James “Whitey” Bulger, I watched the recent film Black Mass which is based on his story. I found the Bulger story to be quite terrifying and unbelievable, I believe the film did a great job portraying his life as a gangster in Boston. Bulger story gives a perfect demonstration of the criminological theories we have discussed in class. I find that Bulger story best represents the disorganization theory of Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay, although, it lacks the representation of Travis Hirschi's self control theory.

The Boys & Girls Club Organization follows the Youth Development Strategy. This strategy describes how the impact of youth development professionals and volunteers interact with young people. All programs that are implemented purposes are to maximize opportunities and assist with the young people attaining the five basic senses; a sense of competence, a sense of usefulness, a sense of belonging, a sense of power and influence.

This theory clearly rules out the effect of inherited or innate factors, and the last is the cognitive theory, which is based on how the perception of an individual is manifested into affecting his or her potential and capability to commit a crime. (Psychological theories of crime) Relating these theories to the case under study, it’s clear that the behaviour can be traced most times to faulty relationships in the family during the first years of

Teens are the future of our society. They are the ones who will soon run the world we live in today. People make mistakes and no one is perfect. From these mistakes people learn, however some do not. Most of the time when a teen makes a bad choice something gets broken, they screw up in class or hurt someone's feelings. Then their are kids who make a bad choice and someone gets killed. Teens should be tried as adults for felony crimes in order to rehabilitate, bring justice to the victims and to keep the streets clean of these threats.

When looking at both these theories a certain similarity sticks out. Both the labeling theory and the social learning theory strive to give information on why deviant acts are committed by certain juveniles. They both also explain what the causes are of people and juveniles being labeled as criminals and how this can cause them to perform the same deviant acts. In conclusion, both the labeling theory along with the social learning theory can be used to provide an explanation for not only juveniles but all deviant behavior done by a person or

Childress, S. (2016, June 2). More States Consider Raising the Age for Juvenile Crime. Retrieved from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/more-states-consider-raising-the-age-for-juvenile-crime/

Day, S. (2014). Runaway Man: A Journey Back to Hope. New York: Library of Congress.

In today’s world there are countless crimes committed every single day. “In 2015, there were 1.42 million total arrests, at a rate of 3,641 arrests per 100,000 residents” (State of California, Department of Justice). Grown adults are not the only people being arrested every year, there are also juveniles, children, being arrested every day. One topic of controversy today is whether or not juveniles who commit these crimes should be tried as adults in criminal court. There are many differences between the justice system for adults and the justice system for juveniles. If a juvenile is defined as a person under the age of eighteen can we justify trying them in as an adult? Is convicting juveniles as adults a better solution?

Many citizens, especially child activists are protesting a recent increase in children being tried in court as adults. Parents are especially mad if their child commits a violent crime, then after is put into an adult prison for an extended period of time. Kids should not be tried as adults for many reasons, including that there are bad role models in jails and that kids ' brains are not developed.

Prior to 1899 in the United States, children who committed a criminal offense were tried and punished as adults. Children were being institutionalized with adult criminals where they were picking up negative influences preparing them for a life of crime. Progressive and social change demanded that children be protected and educated instead and therefore a separate court system for juveniles was subsequently established to address this problem. It has since being argued that juvenile courts have abandoned their role to rehabilitate juvenile delinquents and should be abolished.

According to Andrews and Bonta (2010) the psychology of criminal conduct ( PCC) can be defined as an approach to scientifically understand the criminal behavior of individuals through a systematic approach. Additionally, the psychology of criminal conduct is considered to be interdisciplinary, and considers all aspects of science that will assist in the further comprehension of an individuals criminal behavior, and the causes of criminal behavior (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). Andrews and Bonta ( 2010) stated that the psychology of criminal conduct can be considered a subfield of criminology and psychology due to common beliefs and common interests with both disciplines. Furthermore, the psychology of criminal conduct can be described as using

An individual’s psychological maturity is an imperative factor in understanding an adolescent’s decision-making process. For years, mental health specialists and judicial decision makers have worked hard on defining youth’s cognitive and emotional capacities that influence their behavior. If researchers could pin point the key elements that would be a huge step forward in understanding why juveniles act the way they do. Kelly, Miller, Redlich, Kleinman, and Lamb, in their journal article, “A Taxonomy of Interrogation Methods,” define taxonomy as “the science of classification, organizes what is known about a phenomenon in such a fashion that is accessible and sensible to consumers of the information… it systemizes established observations that

I chose, Settling Sown and Aging Out: Toward an Interactionist Theory of Desistance and the Transition to Adulthood by Massoglia & Uggen (2010), due to the extremely thorough nature of the research that was conducted. The criminal justice system has always been focused on delinquency as well as desistance, and in this study the researchers brought in numerous hypotheses to test, to determine what exactly enables the aging out process. The interesting aspect of this literature, not only that is connects with desistance which we have learned about this semester, it incorporates life course aspects and variables that occur in people’s lives that possibly play a role in desistance.

I believe this theory does the best in explain criminal behavior because I can see how people having stressful events in life or the removal of something positive could lead them into criminal behavior. Anger and hostility can be in response to stressful events in one life (Aseltine, Gore, & Gordon, 2000). This anger can result in criminal behavior because they don’t know what other way to let it out. This can be seen mostly in youths in school. The impact of strain among delinquents changes due to youths personal and social resources that constantly change (Aseltine, Gore, & Gordon, 2000). What also make me believe this theory best explain criminal behavior because, I have seen it many times growing up with people, I know in school. One example, is my sister friend, we have known her for years and when her father passed away it seem that her behavior has a hold changed. She really didn’t focus much in school and started hanging out with a different crowd and doing drugs. My sister and I stood by her side, to let her know that she has real friends that could help her. By her last year in school she realize that this was not the way to

Adult development focuses on the concept of successful aging. Therefore, it is important to know and understand those things that may create problems on the concept of successful aging. To be aware of the things that may create problems on adult development are several beliefs, ideas or theories. These beliefs, ideas, and theories contributes environmental hazards, developmental processes, and genetic tendencies to the aging process such as the wear and tear theory and genetic control theory of aging.