Human Behavior The Nature of Behavior Antisocial Behavior Go against what s normative Problems with drugs alcohol financial problems What is Aggression and Crime A tendency to exploit of bring harm to others and to disobey common social rules Direct aggression Overt and typically physical Punching hitting inflicting pain Indirect aggression Covert and typically verbal Gossip name calling yelling at someone The Nature of Behavior over the Life Course Now that we have a working definition of aggression antisocial behavior have can examine it more directly First look at whether antisocial behavior is stable throughout life Is it stable or does it change What is stability A general pattern of offending behaviors antisocial behaviors that persists over time A strong linkage among childhood behavioral problems juvenile delinquency and adult criminal behavior Two types of stability Absolute stability No difference over time Relative stability The rank ordering of individuals correlational analysis We can rank people on some trait or behavior No change in relation to anyone else Class will focus on relative stability Behavior is HIGHLY STABLE Our behavior becomes patterned and routine We are creatures of habit What We Know Individual difference in antisocial behavior emerge early in the life course Some traits are measurable by 6 months of age These differences can be BERY stable across the life course Most antisocial children do not grow up to be antisocial adults Example Shyness erodes over time Least amount of change for the people who score the highest or lowest on antisocial behaviors Middle candidates most likely to change Biggest predictor of future criminal behavior Past antisocial behavior What Predicts Stability Variety of antisocial acts hitting lying stealing Extremity of acts killing animals inflicting serious pain Early age of onset The earlier the onset the worse the condition Misbehavior that occurs across contexts home church school What We Know Stability and Behavior Adult criminal behavior almost requires childhood antisocial behavior Adult criminal behavior is better predicted by childhood aggression than by any other variable including family background and social class The most antisocial children tend to become the most antisocial adolescents who in turn tend to become the most antisocial adults High degree of stability in behavior and personality from a very young age through adulthood What Accounts of Stability Change Two general perspectives State Dependence State dependence Sampson and Laub 1993 Population heterogeneity Gottfredson and Hirschi 1990 Stability is the result of the social consequences that emanate from engaging in crime Example what happens to a person who has been convicted of a felony Social consequences loss of social capital Crime tends to have a snowball effect wherein engaging in crime immerses an offender into a criminalistics lifestyle that is very difficult to leave How can you find a good job or a pro social spouse if you are labeled as a convict Crime consequences more crime Once an individual becomes ensnared in a life of crime stability is likely to occur However state dependence perspective recognizes that behavioral change is possible What factors promote change desistance Individuals who enter high quality marriages with a pro social spouse are much more likely to desist from crime The Marriage Effect High quality and pro social are important in this theory Marriage and Desistance Sampson and Laub 1993 maintain that entering into a marriage increases social capital thereby promoting desistance Mark Warr 1998 suggests that marriage cut off people from their friends Losing antisocial friends desistance Studies applied to men only no research of women Military Employment Sampson and Laub found that the military fosters the desistance process Gaining lawful stable employment has also been linked to desistance More to lose from engaging in crime Summary of Factors Accounting for Change Local life circumstances are an integral component of change desistance Social facts appear on the surface to be the main ingredient for behavioral change Do biological genetic factors contribute to behavioral change Yes but they are not incorporated into the state dependence perspective Biological genetic contributions to behavioral change Marriage lowers testosterone levels in men Testosterone levels are high around the time of divorce Testosterone not marriage per se may actually be driving the relationship between marriage and desistance Summary of State Dependence Attempts to explain both stability and change Change is explained by social factors marriage employment There is evidence suggesting that biology and genetics is a potent contributor to behavioral change the state dependence perspective ignores this line of literature Population Heterogeneity Behavioral stability is the result of some underlying latent trait that does not change over time Best exemplified by Gottfredson and Hirschi s theory of low self control Focuses on traits low self control impulsivity These traits are thought to cause criminal offending Since such traits are relatively immutable stable behavior remains stable Stable trait stable behavior Childhood adolescence adulthood trait relatively stable over life Since traits cause behavior and traits are stable behavior also remains stable throughout the life course Gottfredson and Hirschi s theory of low self control also is a critique of the major criminological theories They maintain that low self control causes crime deviance and important correlates of offending Suggest that traditional criminological theories are misspecified and spurious social learning theory What causes the development of traits According to Gottfredson and Hirschi parents are the main cause of low self control Three things parents need to do to have a child with high self control Parental supervision Recognition when child does something wrong Correction punishment Parents main determinate of self control Yet there is good reason to believe that biology and genetics are closely tied to the development of traits These traits are highly heritable 80 Concluding Remarks Regardless of what perspective we examine behavior is highly stable In all likelihood neither perspective Sampson and Laub Gottfredson and Hirschi in isolation is probably a good explanation of human behavior and development Human behavior is highly complex and influenced by a multitude