Human Behavior A Dominant Criminological Theories 1 Social Disorganization Theory 2 Social Bond Theory Travis Hirschi 3 Social Learning Theory Sutherland 4 These all exemplify social factors as explanations for human behavior a Why Sociology most criminologists are sociologists Behavior is changeable Not your fault Biology and Genetics are dangerous B Criminology 1 Thus the study of crimes and criminals is guided largely by ideology and disciplinary allegiances 2 But Criminology is supposed to be interdisciplinary Not really true in practice C Criminological Theories 1 Social explanations to crime continue to dominate the discipline of criminology a Social bonding theory developed in 1969 is criminologists favorite theory Why Is it supported by research Is it easy to understand 2 Sociological theories alone leaves us with an impoverished and incomplete understanding to human behavior They are not necessarily wrong a Example Heart attack or disease Only due to social factors D The complexity of Human Behavior 1 In order to understand the causes of behavior we need to move away from a monolithic explanation of behavior and examine a range of different factors a Biology b Genetics c Environment 2 Most Criminal studies only focus on adolescence and young adulthood Side notes The effects of your genes can be altered by your environment There is not such thing as a crime gene We will study behavior beginning at conceptions Aside from adolescents and adults we will also discuss risk factors during fetal development exposure to alcohol drugs etc The Nature of Human Behavior A What is aggression and crime 1 Aggression a tendency to bring harm to others and to disobey common rules Direct aggression overt physical like punching or inflicting pain Indirect aggression covert typically verbal like gossip B Behavior over the life course 1 Is antisocial behavior stable throughout life or changeable a Stability a general pattern of offending that persists over time this has a strong linkage among childhood behavioral problems juvenile delinquency and adult crime Absolute stability no differences over time Person 1 Three felonies at age 18 35 50 Relative stability rank ordering of individuals we rank people by certain traits of be 2 Behavior is highly stable a large literature reviews meta analyses rated behavior as highly stable b our behavior becomes patterned and routine C What we know 1 Individual differences in antisocial behavior emerge early in the life course Some traits measurable by 6 months old 2 These differences can be very stable across the life course 3 However most antisocial children do tend to grow to be antisocial adults D What predicts stability 1 Variety of antisocial acts hitting lying stealing 2 Extremity of acts killing animals inflicting serious pain 3 Early age onset the earlier the onset the worse the condition 4 Misbehavior that occurs across contexts home church school E What we know 1 Adult criminal behavior almost requires childhood antisocial behavior 2 Adult criminal behavior is better predicted by childhood aggression than by any other variable F Stability 1 The most antisocial children tend to become the most antisocial adolescents who in turn tend to become the most antisocial adults This exhibits a high degree of stability in behavior and personality from a very young age through adulthood G What accounts for stability and change 1 State Dependence Sampson and Laub 1993 a Stability is the result of the social consequences that emanate from engaging in criminal activity for example What happens to someone who commits a felony Loss of social capital b Crime has a snowball effect engaging in crime immerses an offender into a criminalistic lifestyle One contributing factors is the difficulty of finding a job as a convict 2 What can promote change a Individuals who enter high quality marriages with a pro social spouse are likely to desist from criminal activity b Sampson and Laub argue that marriage increases social capital promoting desistence c Warr 1998 Suggests that marriage cuts off access to antisocial friends promoting desistence d Sampson and Laub also suggest that by being in the military the absence of your previous lifestyle will promote desistence e Gaining lawful stable employment has been linked with desistence 3 Population Heterogeneity Gottfriedson and Hirschi 1990 a behavioral stability the result of some underlying latent trait that doesn t change b focuses on traits low self control impulsive these traits are stable and can cause criminal offending Due to this they suggest traditional theories are spurious c This theory by Gottfriedson and Hirschi serves as a critique of major criminological theories H Do biological genetic factors contribute to behavioral change 1 Yes but they are not incorporated into state dependence perspective 2 Marriage lowers testosterone levels in males 3 Testosterone levels are high around the time of divorce 4 Testosterone not marriage may actually be driving the relationship between marriage and desistence I State Dependence Summary 1 Attempts to explain both stability and change 2 Change is explained by social factors 3 Yet there is strong evidence that biology genetics is a potent contributor but the state dependence ignores this J What causes the development of traits 1 According to Gottfriedson and Hirschi parents are the main cause a Parental supervision recognition and correction Do parents really help kids learn self control A Standard Socialization Perspectives 1 Alleges that parental behaviors are the main cause of child outcomes B Gottfredson and Hirschi s Parental Socialization Thesis 1 The development of self control is due mainly to three parental management techniques a supervision monitoring b recognition of child s transgressions c consistent and fair punishment 2 Research has found the socialization thesis to be empirically supported a However the effect sizes of the parenting measures tend to be low to m in magnitude 3 What about the possibility that low self control could be genetically influenced a Gottfredson and Hirschi claim that LSC could be genetically influenced C The heritability of Problem behaviors 1 A long line of behavioral genetic research however reveals that attention deficit disorders are strongly influenced by genetic factors 2 Heritability estimates are garnered through the use of genetically sensitive designs i e twin studies 3 ADHD and other problematic behaviors are highly