Life-course theory refers to the study of people’s lives. This approach examines certain principles in one’s life cycle which ultimately influences their criminal behavior or lack thereof. These principles primary focus on age. Although Life-course theories and biosocial theories emphasis similar factors, biosocial theories center around the idea that criminals are biologically different rather than center on an individual’s life experiences. Similar to all theories, the Life-course theory possess strengths and weaknesses compared to other integrated perspectives which in due course reinforces the theory.
When young people reach the stage of being a teenager, there’s a spike in their criminal activity. According to Terrie Moffitt, the creator of the Adolescence-Limited Theory, suggests that there are
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First, are the “life-course-persistent offenders (LCPs).” (p. 443). This particular group engages in misconduct through a good portion of their lives and doesn’t stop once reaching a mature age. On the other hand, “adolescence-limited offenders (ALs).” (p. 444), end their criminal activity once the stage of adolescences ceases. Aside from social experiences and opportunities to practice acceptable behaviors, Moffitt further suggest that someone’s neuropsychological defects are the key to which determines their category. For example, if a woman who is pregnant abuses drug or alcohol, the chances of a child’s development being stunted are increased. This will ultimately throw their numerical age and developmental age out of sync. In other words, an adult with this defect will carry “the same underlying
There are indication that most criminals have a juvenile records in the US, indicating that crime manifests from a tender age. Therefore, to reverse the incidence of crime, it follows that the best strategy is to reduce the criminal orientation in the juvenile offenders as opposed to hardening them and preparing them for criminal careers. The case of the Crossroads Juvenile Center demonstrates the willingness of the juvenile justice systems to make these changes on the children. References Day, S. (2014). Runaway Man: A Journey Back to Hope.
It’s why they can’t smoke, or drink, or go to R movies without our permission. It’s why they don’t vote. It’s why they have curfews. It’s why we fret over their Internet access and fuss about driving privileges.” These examples of restrictions on children show that Evan Miller, a 14-year-old, is very different from an adult.
Developmental theories look at how offenders start and end their criminal behaviors. All developmental theories, including the two focused on in this paper, pull from social, psychological, and biological factors to find answers. Both of these theories follow along a trajectory or pathway for offenders. Sampson and Laub’s age-graded theory has offenders following along two possible trajectories. They can either follow along the high risk trajectory or the low risk trajectory.
Experts have argued that a fifteen or sixteen-year-old young boy or girl is not as developed in their thinking or actions as an adult. An individual at the age of adolescents will not behave or think in the same way that someone in the middle adulthood stage of life will think. Defining who is a juvenile based on age has its
The violent crime rate among juveniles has grown at twice the rate compared to adults in the last two decades (Levitt, 1998). This fact shows that juveniles are constantly being given a slap on the wrist for the crimes adults get sent away for and the violent crime rate would not be inclining at the rate it is if they were processed as adults. Juveniles being processed as adults would decrease the rate due to the deterrence effect. There has been a rise in juvenile arrest rates for violent crimes due to the change in law and policies for juveniles that are less harsh when compared to adults (National Research Council, 2001). Juveniles know that the punishment they will receive for a crime is not harsh which leads them to commit more violent crimes.
The rise of the “Superpredator” Myth in the 1990s led to schools adopting policies that created the School-to-Prison Pipeline. The “Superpredator” Myth was the false projection of an enormous crime wave leading to the belief that teenage crime would skyrocket in the following years. The myth was created by projections of a sudden increase in crimes committed in the US. Along with the prediction of a huge crime wave, it was also predicted that teenagers, specifically black and Latino teenagers, would make up 50% of the predicted crime due to the belief that they were completely impulsive and had no remorse. Another way to justify the prediction of a spike in teenage crime was to describe youth as “fatherless, Godless, and jobless.”
United States: Greenhaven Publishing. The book provides various opposing viewpoints regarding the cause of juvenile crime and how the criminal justice system should treat juvenile offenders. Each argument highlights the main risk factors for juvenile crime. For example, gang plays a large part of juvenile violence.
He describes the adolescent years as a time when we are most immature during our thinking processes. Because of this, teenagers are more argumentative due to underdeveloped reasoning abilities. They believe they are invincible and take risks. (Psychosocial Development Theory) Erik Erikson’s theory of Psychosocial Development may also provide an interesting explanation for the prevalence of teenagers in gangs.
The face of American crime has evolved from adults to the not so innocent faces of adolescence. In today’s society, it is not uncommon for people to fear just walking into public places because they don’t know what horrendous actions may occur due to the indifferent, disrespectful actions of some of America’s youth. Parents are often hesitant to send their children to school because they feel that they cannot trust their child’s fellow classmates. This lack of trust and apprehension was evident in Wisconsin, where two thirteen year old girls attempted to murder one of their fellow classmates. Their reasoning was that they were trying to imitate a fictional character that they saw on the internet.
One of the most debated topics throughout the world is nature versus nurture. When psychologists debate this topic, they are studying what influences a person’s personal development. Some say that a person’s nature influences personal development while others say a person’s nurture influences personal development. A lot of people spend time contemplating which one actually does the influencing but what some do not realize is that, perhaps, both nature and nurture help shape a person’s personal development. One topic that comes up quite often is whether or not a person is born a criminal.
By researching this particular logic of the lifespan, the researchers are enabling the criminal justice system to better understand how variable such as marriage, gainful and fulfilling employment, post-secondary education, child-bearing, financial independence, all potentially have influence on a person’s development throughout their life, and what could possibly derail them. The interesting logic here, is that what used to be considered normal markers such as the variables listed above are altering due to a ever-changing society. For example, the researchers mentioned that single parents are now more prevalent however; this can still be a great marker in relation to desistance from crime through the
It is debated that juveniles are committing more serious and violent crimes because the youth think they can get off easy and take advantage of the system put in place. Those in favor of youth offenders being tried as adults believe that as juveniles are punished to the full extent of the law, future youth offender will think twice before committing a criminal act. In support of this, seventy-five percent of the transferred juveniles interviewed by Redding and Fuller (2004) felt that their experiences in the adult criminal justice system had taught them the serious consequences of committing crimes. As one juvenile explained, “[Being tried as an adult] showed me it’s not a game anymore. Before, I thought that since I’m a juvenile I could do just about anything and just get 6 months if I got
Within the urban communities, negative perceptions are magnified. Adolescents are more prone to be a product of their environment, especially those whose parents are incarcerated. Because of this trend adolescents are being incarcerated at an alarming rate and sentenced to adult facilities. Lambie & Randall (2013) states, the United States have imposed harsher penalties on serious young offenders, and have consequently increased rates of incarcerated youth and made it easier for youth to be treated and incarcerated as adults within the justice
It has three concepts associated with the perspective which are activation, aggravation, and desistance. Activation is within the life course perspective and involves how behaviors concerning delinquency are created, how they continue, the frequency of the behaviors, and how they are diversified (Schmalleger, 2012). There are three concepts associated with life course perspective, activation, aggravation, and desistance. Each of these concepts are important in the perspective. Activation involves how behaviors concerning delinquency are created, how they continue the frequency of the behaviors, and how they are diversified (Schmalleger, 2012).
Juvenile Delinquency is a phenomenon that affects communities worldwide according to media reports, both print and electronic, where worrying images of youths involved in behavior outside societal norm has been highlighted. This issue has been studied by researchers locally, regionally and internationally where results has shown that delinquency has been influenced by a number of factors such as age, gender, race, family circle, environment, socioeconomic status et cetera. This research paper attempts to examine Juvenile delinquency and the effects of social structure on form (III) three students attending secondary schools in Trinidad. A structural functionalist perspective will be used based on factors that influence delinquency such as Poverty, Ideology of hegemony, and discrimination.