In 1993, American psychologist

Terrie Moffitt Terrie Edith Moffitt (born March 9, 1955) is an American clinical psychologist who is best known for her pioneering research on the development of antisocial behavior and for her collaboration with colleague and partner Avshalom Caspi in researc ...

described a dual taxonomy of offending behavior in an attempt to explain the developmental processes that lead to the distinctive shape of the age crime curve. Moffitt proposed that there are two main types of antisocial offenders in society: The

adolescence Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the ...

-limited offenders, who exhibit antisocial behavior only during adolescence, and the life-course-persistent offenders, who begin to behave antisocially early in childhood and continue this behavior into adulthood.Martens, W. H. J. (2000). Antisocial and

psychopathic Psychopathy, sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy, is characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egotistical traits. Different conceptions of psychopathy have been u ...

personality disorders: Causes, course, and remission-a review article. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 44(4), 406-430. This theory is used with respect to antisocial behavior instead of crime due to the differing definitions of 'crime' among cultures. Due to similar characteristics and trajectories, this theory can be applied to both females and males.

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Antisocial personality disorder Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD or infrequently APD) is a personality disorder characterized by a long-term pattern of disregard of, or violation of, the rights of others as well as a difficulty sustaining long-term relationships. Lack ...

(ASPD) is recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). It is a disorder characterized by a severe disregard for the rights of others. In most of the studies described below, individuals who exhibit antisocial behavior, but have not been diagnosed with ASPD, are used as subjects.

Age and Antisocial Personality Disorder

The number of arrests spikes in adolescence, but subsequently declines. This spike leads people to wonder whether more offenders are appearing or more offenses are committed by the same few offenders. Evidence shows that there is an increase in both. The most persistent 5% of offenders are responsible for more than 50% of known crimes committed.Moffitt, Terrie E., 1993, Adolescence-Limited and Life-Course Persistent Antisocial Behavior: A Developmental Taxonomy. Psychological Review 100:674-701. Several experiments have been conducted to investigate the relationship between extremity and stability of offenses. In one such experiment a group of third grade boys was studied. Out of the most aggressive 5%, 39% of them scored above the 95th percentile on

aggression Aggression is overt or covert, often harmful, social interaction with the intention of inflicting damage or other harm upon another individual; although it can be channeled into creative and practical outlets for some. It may occur either reacti ...

ten years later, and 100% of them were above the

median In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic f ...

. Aggression and antisocial behavior in a child is a predictor of adult antisocial behavior.Huesmann, L. R., Dubow, E. F., & Boxer, P. (2009). Continuity of aggression from childhood to early adulthood as a predictor of life outcomes: Implications for the adolescent-limited and life-course-persistent models. Aggressive Behavior, 35, 136-149. Some 'difficult' children exhibit behavioral problems due to

neurological Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

dysfunctions. One study looked specifically at neurological damage and infant behavior in 66 low-birth-weight infants from intact middle-class families. These children exhibited traits such as immaturity, overactivity, temper tantrums, poor attention, and poor school performance. Each of the previous traits listed has been linked to antisocial behavior later in life. However, these children were not followed up with later in life to ensure their trajectory into crime.

Continuity and Stability of Antisocial Behavior

The continuity and stability of antisocial behavior lies at the root of Moffitt's theory. The Adolescent Limited offenders exhibit antisocial behavior without stability over their lifetime, while Life-Course-Persistent offenders typically display antisocial behavior from very early ages. Biting and hitting as early as age 4 followed by crimes such as

shoplifting Shoplifting is the theft of goods from an open retail establishment, typically by concealing a store item on one's person, in pockets, under clothes or in a bag, and leaving the store without paying. With clothing, shoplifters may put on item ...

, selling drugs,

theft Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for som ...

robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

, and

child abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical, sexual, and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or a caregiver. Child abuse may include any act or failure to a ...

characterize a life course persistent offender. Donker ''et al.'' presents a test concerning the prediction on the stability of

longitudinal Longitudinal is a geometric term of location which may refer to: * Longitude ** Line of longitude, also called a meridian * Longitudinal engine, an internal combustion engine in which the crankshaft is oriented along the long axis of the vehicle, ...

antisocial behavior. Two types of antisocial behavior were measured: covert, or behavior that focuses on deceit and theft, and overt, or behavior that involves direct confrontation and the threat of physical harm. This experiment documents subjects during three main periods of their life:

childhood A child (plural, : children) is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers ...

, 6–11 years of age, adolescence, 12–17 years of age, and

adulthood An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of majo ...

, 20–25 years of age. Offenders that begin to show antisocial behavior in childhood that continues into adulthood are what Moffitt considers to be life-course-persistent offenders. Their

delinquent Delinquent or delinquents may refer to: * A person who commits a felony * A juvenile delinquent, often shortened as delinquent is a young person (under 18) who fails to do that which is required by law; see juvenile delinquency * A person who fa ...

behavior is attributed to several factors including neuropsychological impairments and negative environmental features. Moffitt predicts that "…estimates of the individual stability of antisocial behavior are expected to violate the longitudinal law, which states that relationships between variables become weaker as the time interval between them grows longer." The original sample of children (ages 6–11) in 1983 consisted of 1,125 subjects. Three main areas were studied in the subjects: status violations, overt behavior, and covert behavior. Children exhibiting overt behavior were found to have two times greater risk for covert behavior as an adolescent and three times greater risk for it in adulthood. This violates the longitudinal law and proves Moffitt's expectations correct. Further results also supported this violation, but only with respect to overt behavior, not covert behavior.Donker, A. G., Smeenk, W. H., van der Laan, P. H., & Verhulst, F. C. (2003). Individual stability of antisocial behavior from childhood to adulthood: Testing the stability postulate of Moffitt's developmental theory. Criminology, 41(3), 593-609. There is a difference in the continuity of antisocial behavior between men and women as well. In one longitudinal study an entire county's population was followed from age 8 to 48. Only 18% of the women who ranked high in antisocial behavior at age 8 rank high at age 48, while 47% of men stay in the high category. About 37% of both men and women, however, retained low antisocial behavior through age 48.

Life-Course-Persistent Offenders

Biological Risk Factors

The following

biological Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary in ...

risk factors have been linked to, but do not cause, persistent antisocial behavior throughout the life course.

Brain Injury

: According to multiple studies, a correlation was found between brain insult suffered during delivery and later antisocial behavior. Also in

acceleration In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by ...

deceleration In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by t ...

traumatic brain injury A traumatic brain injury (TBI), also known as an intracranial injury, is an injury to the brain caused by an external force. TBI can be classified based on severity (ranging from mild traumatic brain injury TBI/concussionto severe traumatic br ...

(TBI), an increase in aggression and antisocial behavior was recorded after the incident.Andrews, T. K., Rose, F. D., & Johnson, D. A. (1998). Social and behavioural effects of traumatic brain injury in children. Brain Injury, 12(2), 133-138. Perhaps the most well documented injury associated with antisocial behavior is injury to the

pre-frontal cortex In mammalian brain anatomy, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) covers the front part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. The PFC contains the Brodmann areas BA8, BA9, BA10, BA11, BA12, BA13, BA14, BA24, BA25, BA32, BA44, BA45, BA46 ...

. Damage to this part of the brain early in childhood correlates to an antisocial behavior that extends through the life-course.Raine, A., & Yang, Y. (2006). Neural foundations to moral reasoning and antisocial behavior. Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 1, 203-213.

Brain Activity

:The

right hemisphere The lateralization of brain function is the tendency for some neural functions or cognitive processes to be specialized to one side of the brain or the other. The median longitudinal fissure separates the human brain into two distinct cerebr ...

is responsible for

spatial awareness Spatial contextual awareness consociates contextual information such as an individual's or sensor's location, activity, the time of day, and proximity to other people or objects and devices.Chen, Guanling, and David Kotz. 2000. A Survey of Context- ...

and orientation. Deficits on this side of the brain can lead to problems in

facial A facial is a family of skin care treatments for the face, including steam, exfoliation (physical and chemical), extraction, creams, lotions, facial masks, peels, and massage. They are normally performed in beauty salons, but are also a comm ...

and expression recognition. These impairments can do more than just interfere with early attachment and bonding. They can lead to adverse parenting due to the child's inappropriate responses to parental moods or expressions. In one experiment, 868 seven-year-old boys in Pennsylvania were divided into groups: one group on the life-course persistent offender path, one on the adolescent limited path, and one control group. A

Continuous Performance Task A continuous performance task, continuous performance test, or CPT, is any of several kinds of neuropsychological test that measures a person's sustained and selective attention. Sustained attention is the ability to maintain a consistent focus on ...

test (CPT) was used to test

frontal lobe The frontal lobe is the largest of the four major lobes of the brain in mammals, and is located at the front of each cerebral hemisphere (in front of the parietal lobe and the temporal lobe). It is parted from the parietal lobe by a groove be ...

function. Larger neurocognitive impairments were found in the life-course persistent group (LCP) than in the control group. Additionally,

positron emission tomography Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including blood flow, ...

(PET),

near-infrared spectroscopy Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a spectroscopic method that uses the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum (from 780 nm to 2500 nm). Typical applications include medical and physiological diagnostics and research inc ...

, and

magnetoencephalography Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a functional neuroimaging technique for mapping brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents occurring naturally in the brain, using very sensitive magnetometers. Arrays of SQUIDs (s ...

imaging studies have shown more right hemisphere activation during the CPT, so these results are consistent with right hemisphere dysfunction in subjects displaying antisocial behavior.Raine, A. (2005). Neurocognitive impairments in boys on the life-course persistent antisocial path. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114(1), 38-49. : Reduced

glucose metabolism Carbohydrate metabolism is the whole of the biochemical processes responsible for the metabolic formation, breakdown, and interconversion of carbohydrates in living organisms. Carbohydrates are central to many essential metabolic pathways. P ...

in the pre-frontal cortex has been recorded in

murderers Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...

compared with normal controls. Also, several other studies cited reduced blood flow in the same area. Recent studies indicate that abnormalities associated with antisocial behavior are localized in the orbitofrontal and

dorsolateral prefrontal The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC or DL-PFC) is an area in the prefrontal cortex of the primate brain. It is one of the most recently derived parts of the human brain. It undergoes a prolonged period of maturation which lasts until adult ...

regions. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex abnormality may predispose to "response perseveration" leading to a life-course-persistent antisocial behavior despite repeated punishment. Several other abnormalities of the brain have been found with relation to antisocial behavior such as reduced functioning of the

amygdala The amygdala (; plural: amygdalae or amygdalas; also '; Latin from Greek, , ', 'almond', 'tonsil') is one of two almond-shaped clusters of nuclei located deep and medially within the temporal lobes of the brain's cerebrum in complex ver ...

, abnormal glucose metabolism in the

temporal lobe The temporal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The temporal lobe is located beneath the lateral fissure on both cerebral hemispheres of the mammalian brain. The temporal lobe is involved i ...

, smaller volumes of the

hippocampus The hippocampus (via Latin from Greek , 'seahorse') is a major component of the brain of humans and other vertebrates. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in each side of the brain. The hippocampus is part of the limbic syste ...

, and lesser function of the

anterior cingulate In the human brain, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is the frontal part of the cingulate cortex that resembles a "collar" surrounding the frontal part of the corpus callosum. It consists of Brodmann areas 24, 32, and 33. It is involved i ...

. :Spatial Capabilities :In the previous Pennsylvania study, the life-course persistent (LCP) group showed significant impairments on spatial tests compared with the control group. No significant differences were shown between the adolescent limited (AL) group and the control group with respect to spatial IQ. :Verbal Capabilities :Children exhibiting antisocial behavior early in life, many of whom are the same individuals who continue their trajectory into adulthood, often have difficulties with oral communication. Within the 868 Pennsylvania boys, the LCP group had significantly lower

verbal IQ The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is an IQ test designed to measure intelligence and cognitive ability in adults and older adolescents. The original WAIS (Form I) was published in February 1955 by David Wechsler, as a revision of the ...

(and regular IQ) scores than the adolescent limited group, and no significant differences were shown between the adolescent limited (AL) group and the control group with respect to verbal IQ.

Minor Physical Anomalies

:Moffitt writes, " Minor physical anomalies, which are thought to be observable markers for hidden anomalies in neural development, have been found at elevated rates among violent offenders and subjects with antisocial

personality traits In psychology, trait theory (also called dispositional theory) is an approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of ''traits'', which can be defined as habitual patterns of behaviour, th ...

." Neural development in the

fetus A fetus or foetus (; plural fetuses, feti, foetuses, or foeti) is the unborn offspring that develops from an animal embryo. Following embryonic development the fetal stage of development takes place. In human prenatal development, fetal dev ...

may also be affected by

maternal ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestat ...

drug abuse, poor

prenatal nutrition Prenatal nutrition addresses nutrient recommendations before and during pregnancy. Nutrition and weight management before and during pregnancy has a profound effect on the development of infants. This is a rather critical time for healthy develo ...

, or

prenatal Prenatal development () includes the development of the embryo and of the fetus during a viviparous animal's gestation. Prenatal development starts with fertilization, in the germinal stage of embryonic development, and continues in fetal devel ...

postnatal The postpartum (or postnatal) period begins after childbirth and is typically considered to end within 6 weeks as the mother's body, including hormone levels and uterus size, returns to a non-pregnant state. The terms puerperium, puerperal perio ...

exposure to

toxic Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subs ...

agents. Minor physical anomalies (MPAs) are features such as low-seated ears, furrowed tongue, and adherent ear lobes. Evidence supporting the link between minor physical anomalies and antisocial behavior shows that the link only exists when adverse

environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

factors are present.

Social Risk Factors

In many studies, the individuals displaying antisocial behavior developed in a family exhibiting "deviant behavior," in an "adverse home environment," or in something similar. However most studies do not specify the exact traits that characterize the tested 'deviant' or 'adverse' environment. Many that are cited include abuse, neglect, socioeconomic status, parental antisocial behavior, etc. There is no evidence that social factors, such as these, can induce antisocial behavior without accompanying biological factors.

Effect of Biological and Social Risk Factors Together

{, class="wikitable" , - ! Biological !! Social , - , Genetic , , Abuse , - , Brain Injury , , Neglect , - , Brain Activity , , Socioeconomic Status , - , Minor Physical Anomalies (MPAs) , , Parental deviant behavior Moffitt projects that initial biological predispositions combined with an adverse rearing environment will initiate the risk of life-course persistent antisocial behavior. She conducted a longitudinal study in New Zealand of boys exhibiting a range of antisocial tendencies. Of the 536 boys, 75 of them had adverse home environments and neuropsychological problems. Those 75 boys scored more than 4 times higher on aggression than the boys with adverse home environments or neuropsychological problems (one of the two). LCP offenders in the Pennsylvania study had higher levels of poverty than the control participants, and they had higher levels of neglect than both the control participants and the AL participants. Additionally,

twin studies Twin studies are studies conducted on identical or fraternal twins. They aim to reveal the importance of environmental and genetic influences for traits, phenotypes, and disorders. Twin research is considered a key tool in behavioral genetics ...

are often used to isolate effects of nature and nurture. In one such study, the highest criminal activity levels were witnessed in individuals whose foster families exhibited deviant behavior.

Genetic and Environmental Interactions

:The first biological predisposition one thinks of is

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

. Despite Moffitt's original projection that life-course persistent antisocial behavior was more genetically influenced than the adolescent limited variety, a recent study found similar levels of genetic influence on both childhood-onset and adolescent-onset antisocial behavior.Silberg, J., Moore, A. A., & Rutter, M. (2014). Age of onset and the subclassification of conduct/dissocial disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Epub ahead of print. Childhood-onset antisocial behavior shares common genetic underpinnings with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and young adult antisocial behavior, whereas adolescent-onset antisocial behavior does not share any of these common genetic underpinnings. Several experiments use individuals with antisocial parents who have been adopted and raised by other people. Consistently, however, antisocial behavior prevails in the child despite the deviant, biological parents being absent. One such experiment used individuals whose biological parents exhibited criminal behavior and who were adopted. When the adoptive environment was adverse and the genetic predisposition was present, 40% of the adoptees partook in criminal activity compared to only 12.1% with only genetic predispositions. In another study, significant heritability was found for crime, but one subsequent finding was that heritability was higher in individuals from high socioeconomic background and those from rural areas.Raine, A. (2002). Biosocial studies of antisocial and violent behavior in children and adults: A review. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 30(4), 311-326. This shows the link between antisocial behavior and biological risk will be stronger in individuals from kindly social backgrounds than individuals from adverse social backgrounds "because the social causes of crime camouflage the biological contribution. While several studies have been initiated to identify the

alleles An allele (, ; ; modern formation from Greek ἄλλος ''állos'', "other") is a variation of the same sequence of nucleotides at the same place on a long DNA molecule, as described in leading textbooks on genetics and evolution. ::"The chrom ...

responsible for antisocial behavior, no such discovery has been made thus far.

Minor Physical Anomalies and Environmental Interactions

:In one study testing 129 boys from age 12 to 21 years with minor physical anomalies (MPAs), the correlation between antisocial behavior and MPAs only existed when the individual suffering from an MPA was exposed to an adverse home environment. This environment was necessary to express the biological predisposition just like an environment is necessary to express certain genes.

Brain Activity and Environmental Interactions

:A link between prefrontal cortex dysfunction and antisocial behavior has been found in many studies. Some frontal lobe lesions have been responsible for impulsivity and disinhibition, which are key characteristics of Antisocial Personality Disorder. In one such study, a group of murderers were divided into two groups: one with benign social backgrounds and one with malignant social backgrounds. Using positron emission tomography (PET) scans were used to detect function in different parts of the brain. Compared to a normal control group, the murderers raised in malignant environments had relatively good prefrontal functioning, but the murderers raised in benign environments had significantly reduced prefrontal functioning, mainly in the right hemisphere.

Functional MRI Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area o ...

scans were used in another study with violent offenders and abusive environments. Four groups were composed of non-violent controls with no history of abuse, violent offenders with a history of abuse, violent offenders with no history of abuse, and non-violent controls with a history of abuse. The violent offenders who had been abused showed reduced function in the right hemisphere, particularly the right temporal cortex. According to the authors of this article, this experiment's results imply that good right hemispheric functioning may protect against violence in abused children.

Adolescence-limited offenders

Although the biological risk factor do not apply to this group, one point worth noting is that the myelination of the frontal cortex continues into our 20's. This continuing development may help to explain why antisocial behavior ceases after adolescence and why such a spike in crime exists there in the first place.

Cause

According to Terrie Moffitt, there are 3

etiological Etiology (pronounced ; alternatively: aetiology or ætiology) is the study of causation or origination. The word is derived from the Greek (''aitiología'') "giving a reason for" (, ''aitía'', "cause"); and ('' -logía''). More completely, e ...

hypotheses for adolescent-limited offenders: 1. Adolescence-limited antisocial behavior is motivated by the gap between biological maturity and social maturity 2. It is learned from antisocial models who are easily mimicked 3. It is sustained according to the

reinforcement In behavioral psychology, reinforcement is a consequence applied that will strengthen an organism's future behavior whenever that behavior is preceded by a specific antecedent stimulus. This strengthening effect may be measured as a higher fr ...

principles of learning theory

Neuroethical Implications

This type of theory leads to several different neuroethical issues. If, in the future, we were able to use brain scans, behavioral data, or another type of screening to identify life-course-persistent offenders in childhood, what type of interventions would be implemented, if any? Would it even be

ethical Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ma ...

to use brain scans or other screening methods to preemptively test children in the first place? Assuming that the data was so reliable that there was no chance a child tested to be a life-course-persistent offender could change course throughout his/her life due to social or environmental factors, what would we do with those children? If those positively tested children were placed in a classroom together, away from other children, it is likely that their violence or aggression would simply worsen. Do we want to institute policies that "treat troubled children as future criminals?"Skardhamar, T. (2009). Reconsidering the theory on adolescent-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behaviour. British Journal of Criminology, 49, 863-878. One particular experiment compares the neural bases of antisocial behavior and

morality Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of co ...

. What if, in the future, we could identify the people who had an intact moral compass, but were biologically engineered to exhibit antisocial behavior? Would this change the course of action with these individuals, or does every antisocial individual deserve intervention despite their moral health?

References

Criminology