Childhood family and neighbourhood socio-economic status, psychopathy, and adult criminal behaviour

• NCJ Number: 307152
• Journal: Legal and Criminological Psychology Volume: 28 Issue: 1 Dated: 2023 Pages: 106-121
• Author(s): Sydney Baker; Magda Javakhishvili; Cathy Spatz Widom
• Date Published: 2023
• Length: 16 pages
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)

Annotation

This study examining whether psychopathic trait scores moderate the relationship between adult arrests and childhood family and neighborhood socio-economic status (SES) found that childhood SES (family and neighborhood) continues to affect criminal behavior long into adulthood.

Abstract

This study examining whether psychopathic trait scores moderate the relationship between childhood family and neighborhood SES and adult arrests found that childhood SES (family and neighborhood) continues to affect criminal behavior long into adulthood. But neither childhood family SES, childhood neighborhood SES, nor psychopathic traits alone explain the extent of adult arrests. For people with comparably low levels of psychopathic traits, childhood family and neighborhood socio-economic status continued to impact adult arrests. A large group of Midwest children ages 0–11 years old during 1967–1971 were interviewed as adults in 1989–1995 (N = 1144) at mean age 29. Childhood family SES was based on information collected during the interview and neighborhood SES were based on census tract information from childhood. Psychopathic trait scores were based on information from interviews and case records. Official arrest data were used to assess criminal behavior in adulthood. Childhood family SES, childhood neighborhood SES, and psychopathic trait scores each independently predicted the number of adult arrests. As expected, lower childhood family SES and childhood neighborhood SES predicted a larger number of adult arrests, and higher psychopathic trait scores were associated with a greater number of adult arrests. Childhood family SES and childhood neighborhood SES also interacted with psychopathic trait scores to predict adult arrests. For individuals with low psychopathic trait scores, lower childhood family SES and lower childhood neighborhood SES each predicted a higher number of adult arrests, whereas this was not the case for individuals with high psychopathic trait scores.