Factors that contribute to an individual’s decision to commit a crime.
Engagement in criminal activity has been a challenging topic to discuss. The challenges are attributed to the different perceptions people have on criminal behavior. Researchers have been trying to find out the exact causes of one engaging in an unethical act since immemorial up to date. In the early years, people were believed to be possessed by evil spirits whenever they engaged in unethical behavior. The crime was equated to sin. During that period, they were served with harsh punishment to stop the habit. With the evolution and establishment of the judicial system, wrongdoers begun being presented in courts for judgment. The courts made a judgment based on the magnitude of the crime committed, and in its initial stages, were mostly harsh punishment such as hard labor, beatings, limited freedom, among others. Later, it was realized the mode of punishment was not helping a lot in changing the behavior of the criminal. They started incorporating the aspect of rehabilitation. To increase the effectiveness of rehabilitation, a scientific approach has to be incorporated into the system. The motivation behind this is the fact that the forms of crimes are changing with the changes occurring in the world. In early years people mostly engaged in physical theft while nowadays crimes are occurring mostly online through the dark webs. Although some people engage in crimes for personal reasons and their life situations, there are, however, other psychological experiences and genetic factors that influence the decision to engage in criminal acts. This paper depends on finding from previous literature to respond to respond to the research question on whether or not exposure to aggressive performance in early childhood promotes criminal behavior in adulthood.
Does exposure to aggressive performance in the early childhood stage promote criminal behavior in adulthood?
Children undergo both primary and secondary socialization. Socialization is the process of passing norms, customs, and ideologies from one generation to the other. In this case, the family is the key primary socializing agent. Primary socialization plays a crucial role in the life of a child since it sets standards for forthcoming socialization. It teaches a kid the appropriate attitude, values as well as the culturally acceptable actions to engage in. The learning process is through both observations of the occurrences within the family environment as well as verbal guidelines. The behaviors a child learns from the close family members and friends can be, in some instances, be negative. In the future, when the kid becomes an adult, they will have a high likelihood of engaging in such unethical acts. In cases whereby parents are drug abusers, there is a high likelihood that they will neglect their children. Children who suffer from neglect experience emotional problems and a likely to commit crimes such as physical violence even in their later adulthood. This ideology on the effect of socialization of children on criminal behavior in adulthood is evidently presented on Britt if Klinteberg and her team research paper titled Family psychosocial characteristics influencing criminal behavior and mortality – possible mediating factors: a longitudinal study of male and female subjects in the Stockholm Birth Cohort.
Britt af Klinteberg is a PhD owner and a professor in the field of Psychology. Britt works in the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University. Britt has engaged in various researches in the field of psychology drug and substance abuse, peer and family relations, among others. In this particular study, the authors explored the relationship between the families’ psychological characteristics during the period of child growth and development with the criminal behavior of the child in the future. Alcohol and/or drug abuse, individual gender of either being female or male, and mental problems were evaluated since they were thought to be the possible intervening variables between the relationships. The study depended on longitudinal data collected at different periods from the Stockholm Birth Cohort, among other different sources study with 14,294 cases observed. The subjects for the study were born in 1953 and in Stockholm. Analysis of the data obtained was carried out by the use of logistic regression.
The family psychosocial characteristics examined in this study included the father of the child’s history of criminality when the child was aged between ages 0 to six years. The type of sentence the father was subjected to upon commitment of crime was also analyzed. Secondly, the father’s use and abuse of alcohol when the child was aged between 0 to 13 years. Thirdly, Parents’ mental health problems which lie in either of the three categories provided by the researchers including ‘psychiatric problems or depressed,’ ‘receiving psychiatric treatment,’ and ‘committed suicide’ when the child was aged between 0-12 and the finally the male parent occupational class while the child was ten years old.
The respondent problems were also evaluated. Crimes committed by a fellow cohort member, regardless of its nature, also a variable of crimes against another person such as physical violence, among others, while he or she was between ages 13 and 27. Person’s use of alcohol or any other drugs any time age while they were aged between 13-19 years and whether any action was taken by Child Welfare Committee or not. Whether the subject of the study suffered mental health problems while they were aged between 13 to 19 years old and this depended on records of actions taken by the Child Welfare Committee due to the condition.
The results from the study indicated that there existed a significant relationship between the families’ psychological characteristics during the period of child growth and development with the criminal behavior of the child in the future among both genders. However, the father’s psychosocial characteristics had a great association with the male children’s than female’s criminal behavior, and this is associated with social modeling. All the family and individual psychological characteristics tested had a significant association with a child’s criminality. The findings implied that the reduction of an individual’s abuse of drugs would play a crucial role in reducing the person’s criminal behavior.
The major strength of this article is that it relied on a large volume of data, which increased the accuracy of the conclusions, thereby making it more reliable to use. However, the variables of the study were broad; therefore, less specific details were provided. Additionally, some of the study subjects moved in and out of the Stockholm area. The research took quite a long period of time and also included subjects whose matrimonial home was away from the area.
Exposure refers to the environment in which a child is brought up in. The friends and family form part of the child’s environment. Children are likely to learn from the behaviors of their parents and emulate them. In some instances, the behaviors are negative such as exposure to use of drug abuse, engagement in criminal activities, among others. Therefore, when dealing with criminal offenders, it is very crucial to put the findings of the study into consideration. Some of the lawbreakers deserve psychological help and counseling rather than harsh punishments. Additionally, in case an individual was exposed to such a promoting criminal environment, they should also seek counseling in advance. As a result, they will reduce the risk of being arrested and put in jails.