Terrie Moffitt's Developmental Theory Of Crime
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In 1993, American psychologist
Terrie Moffitt Terrie Edith Moffitt (born March 9, 1955) is an American-British 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 i ...
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 human Developmental biology, physical and psychological Human development (biology), development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age o ...
-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, or psychopathic personality, is a personality construct characterized by impaired empathy and remorse, along with bold, disinhibited, and egocentric traits. These traits are often masked by superficial charm and immunity to s ...
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) is a personality disorder defined by a chronic pattern of behavior that disregards the rights and well-being of others. People with ASPD often exhibit behavior that conflicts with social norms, leading to ...
(ASPD) is recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). 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 behavior aimed at opposing or attacking something or someone. Though often done with the intent to cause harm, some might channel it into creative and practical outlets. It may occur either reactively or without provocation. In h ...
ten years later, and 100% of them were above the
median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...
. 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 , "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 nervous system, which comprises the brain, the s ...
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 Maturity or immaturity may refer to: * Adulthood or age of majority * Maturity model ** Capability Maturity Model, in software engineering, a model representing the degree of formality and optimization of processes in an organization * Developmen ...
, overactivity,
temper tantrums A tantrum, angry outburst, temper tantrum, lash out, meltdown, fit, or hissy fit is an emotional outburst, usually associated with those in emotional distress. It is typically characterized by stubbornness, crying, screaming, violence, defian ...
, 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 (also known as shop theft, shop fraud, retail theft, or retail fraud) is the theft of goods from a retail establishment during business hours. The terms ''shoplifting'' and ''shoplifter'' are not usually defined in law, and genera ...
, selling drugs,
theft Theft (, cognate to ) 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 shor ...
,
robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person o ...
,
rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...
, and
child abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical abuse, physical, child sexual abuse, sexual, emotional and/or psychological abuse, psychological maltreatment or Child neglect, neglect of a child, especially by a p ...
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 () 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 term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...
, 6–11 years of age, adolescence, 12–17 years of age, and
adulthood An adult is an animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus capable of reproduction. In the human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social an ...
, 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 may refer to: * Delinquent (royalist) In 1643, near the start of the English Civil War, Parliament set up two committees: the Sequestration Committee, which confiscated the estates of the Royalists who fought against Parliament, and ...
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 and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, and distribution of ...
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 Delivery may refer to: Biology and medicine *Childbirth *Drug delivery *Gene delivery Business and law *Delivery (commerce), of goods, e.g.: **Pizza delivery ** Milk delivery ** Food delivery ** Online grocer *Deed ("delivery" in contract law), a ...
and later antisocial behavior. Also in
acceleration In mechanics, acceleration is the Rate (mathematics), rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Acceleration is one of several components of kinematics, the study of motion. Accelerations are Euclidean vector, vector ...
-
deceleration In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Acceleration is one of several components of kinematics, the study of motion. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnit ...
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 (mTBI/concussion) to severe traumati ...
(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. It is the association cortex in the frontal lobe. The PFC contains the Brodmann areas BA8, BA9, BA10, BA11, BA12, BA ...
. 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 (or hemispheric dominance/ lateralization) 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 ...
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 Orientation may refer to: Positioning in physical space * Map orientation, the relationship between directions on a map and compass directions * Orientation (housing), the position of a building with respect to the sun, a concept in building des ...
. 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 c ...
and expression recognition. These impairments can do more than just interfere with early
attachment Attachment may refer to: Art and entertainment * ''Attachment'' (painting), an 1829 work by Edwin Landseer * ''Attachment'' (film), a 2023 Danish horror film by Gabriel Bier Gislason * ''Attachments'' (novel), a 2011 novel by Rainbow Rowell * ...
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 ...
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 Sulcus (neur ...
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, r ...
(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 electric current, electrical currents occurring naturally in the human brain, brain, using very sensitive magn ...
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 Glucose is a sugar with the molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and ...
in the pre-frontal cortex has been recorded in murderers 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 into adulthoo ...
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 (; : amygdalae or amygdalas; also '; Latin from Greek language, Greek, , ', 'almond', 'tonsil') is a paired nucleus (neuroanatomy), nuclear complex present in the Cerebral hemisphere, cerebral hemispheres of vertebrates. It is c ...
, 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 in pr ...
, smaller volumes of the
hippocampus The hippocampus (: hippocampi; via Latin from Ancient Greek, Greek , 'seahorse'), also hippocampus proper, is a major component of the brain of humans and many other vertebrates. In the human brain the hippocampus, the dentate gyrus, and the ...
, and lesser function of the
anterior cingulate In human brains, 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 in c ...
. :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 Intelligence quotient, IQ test designed to measure intelligence and cognitive ability in adults and older adolescents. For children between the ages of 6 and 16, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for C ...
(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 Minor physical anomalies (MPAs) are relatively minor (typically painless and, in themselves, harmless) congenital physical abnormalities consisting of features such as low-set ears, single transverse palmar crease, telecanthus, micrognathism, ma ...
, 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 behavior, thou ...
."
Neural development The development of the nervous system, or neural development (neurodevelopment), refers to the processes that generate, shape, and reshape the nervous system of animals, from the earliest stages of embryonic development to adulthood. The field ...
in the
fetus A fetus or foetus (; : fetuses, foetuses, rarely feti or foeti) is the unborn offspring of a viviparous animal that develops from an embryo. Following the embryonic development, embryonic stage, the fetal stage of development takes place. Pren ...
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 gestatio ...
drug abuse Substance misuse, also known as drug misuse or, in older vernacular, substance abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder, differing definitions ...
, 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 develop ...
, or
prenatal Prenatal development () involves the embryonic development, development of the embryo and of the fetus during a viviparity, viviparous animal's gestation. Prenatal development starts with fertilization, in the germinal stage of embryonic develop ...
/
postnatal The postpartum (or postnatal) period begins after childbirth and is typically considered to last for six to eight weeks. There are three distinct phases of the postnatal period; the acute phase, lasting for six to twelve hours after birth; the ...
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 subst ...
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 Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...
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 Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...
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 twin, identical or Fraternal twin, fraternal twins. They aim to reveal the importance of environmental and genetics, genetic influences for traits, phenotypes, and disorders. Twin research is consid ...
are often used to isolate effects of
nature and nurture Nature versus nurture is a long-standing debate in biology and society about the relative influence on human beings of their genetic inheritance (nature) and the environmental conditions of their development ( nurture). The alliterative expression ...
. 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 Augustinians, Augustinian ...
. 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 Heritability is a statistic used in the fields of Animal husbandry, breeding and genetics that estimates the degree of ''variation'' in a phenotypic trait in a population that is due to genetic variation between individuals in that population. T ...
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 is a variant of the sequence of nucleotides at a particular location, or locus, on a DNA molecule. Alleles can differ at a single position through single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), but they can also have insertions and deletions ...
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 Minor physical anomalies (MPAs) are relatively minor (typically painless and, in themselves, harmless) congenital physical abnormalities consisting of features such as low-set ears, single transverse palmar crease, telecanthus, micrognathism, ma ...
(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 In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...
.


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 (; alternatively spelled aetiology or ætiology) is the study of causation or origination. The word is derived from the Greek word ''()'', meaning "giving a reason for" (). More completely, etiology is the study of the causes, origin ...
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 In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. In the simples ...
3. It is sustained according to the
reinforcement In Behaviorism, behavioral psychology, reinforcement refers to consequences that increase the likelihood of an organism's future behavior, typically in the presence of a particular ''Antecedent (behavioral psychology), antecedent stimulus''. Fo ...
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 Neuroimaging is the use of quantitative (computational) techniques to study the structure and function of the central nervous system, developed as an objective way of scientifically studying the healthy human brain in a non-invasive manner. Incre ...
, 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 is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied e ...
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 categorization of intentions, Decision-making, decisions and Social actions, actions into those that are ''proper'', or ''right'', and those that are ''improper'', or ''wrong''. Morality can be a body of standards or principle ...
. 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?


See also

*
Italian school of criminology The Italian school of criminology was founded at the end of the 19th century by Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909) and two of his Italian disciples, Enrico Ferri (1856–1929) and Raffaele Garofalo (1851–1934). Lombroso's conception of the "atav ...
* Differential K theory *
Fluctuating asymmetry Fluctuating asymmetry (FA), is a form of biological asymmetry, along with anti-symmetry and direction asymmetry. Fluctuating asymmetry refers to small, random deviations away from perfect bilateral symmetry. This deviation from perfection is thoug ...
*
Minor physical anomalies Minor physical anomalies (MPAs) are relatively minor (typically painless and, in themselves, harmless) congenital physical abnormalities consisting of features such as low-set ears, single transverse palmar crease, telecanthus, micrognathism, ma ...


References

Criminology