Childhood Aggression and Adult Criminality (From Facts, Frameworks, and Forecasts: Advances in Criminological Theory, V 3, P 137-156, 1992, Joan McCord, ed. -- See NCJ-136081)

• NCJ Number: 136088
• Author(s): L R Huesmann; L D Eron
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 20 pages
• Grant Number(s): MH38383
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Mental Health
• Sale Source: Transaction Publishers
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This literature reviews the relevant literature to determine factors in the divergence of behavioral development among persons raised in similar environments.

Abstract

This study concludes that the theories that have attempted to explain criminal and antisocial behavior as a consequence of economic and social deprivation as well as stressful environments have erred. Habitual criminal behavior requires a specific psychological orientation that develops only when a number of predisposing and precipitating factors converge with an environment that is conducive to learning aggression. Environment interacts with predisposing factors in the young child to promote the development of cognitions that guide social behavior not only in childhood, but throughout life. Whether these cognitive structures are viewed as scripts, cue-behavior connections, self-regulating internal standards, or attributional biases, these structures are resistant to change as the child grows into adolescence and young adulthood. The major conclusion from these findings is that interventions must target the young child. The adolescent's and young adult's environment may provide the precipitating factors that engender crime and reinforcing consequences for crime, but the psychological basis of the antisocial behavior may have developed much earlier. 4 notes and 53 references