Developmental and Environmental Risk Factors - Research Paper Example

Developmental and Environmental Risk factors in Criminal Behavior Introduction Violence, and the espousal of criminal behavior, in general, is attributed to many causes and events that happen in one’s life. Mental infirmity, odious relationship, poverty, abusive childhood, lost parents, social withdrawal, and many other issues are associated with criminology. However, research related to sociopathy and psychopathy shows that criminal actions are normally committed by persons whose psychological performance is dissimilar to that of normal persons, which suggests that criminal behavior should not be understood only as an environmental aspect of human nature, because there is also a causal association between anomalous brain chemistry and hostility.

Developmental Risk Factors Ferguson (2008, p.321) affirms that criminal conduct is such an “aggressive behavior that is excessive or uncontrolled and results from either of two pathways” which include instrumental violence and reactive violence. The former type is related to “genetic contributions to aggressive personality traits” (Ferguson, 2008, p.321); while, the second type involves genetic fault or an injury in the impulse control system. Damage or injuries to specific flimsy areas of a child’s brain can cause his performance to suffer, which is a biological source of Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

Neurotransmitters, chemicals present in the brain, can also be held responsible for ODD, as their abnormal levels in the brain hinder with the proper communication of neurons with each other, causing their messages to not being transmitted throughout the nervous system. The presence of other psychiatric disorders, like ADHD or mood disorders, also initiates the occurrence of ODD in a child’s behavior. Studies have blamed the chemical serotonin to be chiefly responsible for oppositional, defiant, hostile and violent behavior.

Criminality and violent behavior that occurs after puberty also involve abnormality in the hormone, testosterone. Siegel (2008, p. 286) quotes Lewis who has written in her book, Guilty by Reason of Insanity, that “death row inmates have a history of mental impairment and intellectual dysfunction.” Siegel further identifies many biological factors that are responsible for violence, which include borderline personality disorder, depression, pathological lying, and abnormal personality traits.

Moreover, Marie Asberg, in 1976, discovered the linkage between brain and aggression/violence by detailing “a link between low serotonin and violent suicides” (Kotulak, 1997, p. 78). She found that people who had low serotonin levels were ten times more at risk of violent death than those who had the same grade of depression but with higher serotonin. People with low serotonin have been found suffering from conduct disorder in their adolescence. Also, when high noradrenaline combines with low serotonin, the person acts violent toward others; however, when low noradrenaline is overlaid with low serotonin, the person maintains the aggression within himself that leads to depression.

Tehrani and Mednick (2000) conducted their research on twin, adoption, and family studies, and found that genetic factors are involved in violent criminality. Twin studies involve research on the behavior of monozygotic and dizygotic twins to see the concordance rate to anticipate to what extent genes influence violence. If this rate is higher in monozygotic twins than in dizygotic twins, then this means that genes influence violent criminality (Tehrani & Mednick, 2000). Environmental Risk Factors We cannot ignore the evolutionary or environmental aspects of human nature being responsible for criminal behavior.

Researchers have talked about the evolutionary factors which involve inappropriate socialization and background. Among children, there are many psychological disorders that convert into criminal behavior, just because they do not receive proper attention at homes. Youth Violence (2001), A Report of the Surgeon General, has suggested that there are two developmental pathways leading to violence: Early- and Late-Onset Trajectories. “Children who commit their first serious violent act before puberty are in the early-onset group, whereas youths who do not become violent until adolescence are in the late-onset group” (Youth Violence, 2001, par.4). Point is to ponder upon what makes these children commit criminality.

Environmental risk factors include child abuse, substance abuse, neglect, deprivation, having faced prejudice, being involved in animal cruelty during childhood, sexual harassment, reading disorder in children, and mental torture. So, people are often forced to show criminality through their social or cultural experiences. Conclusion Criminal behavior can only be properly understood if it is approached through both the developmental and environmental risk factors. Criminologists look into the biological profiles of criminals before going into their background histories, because it is scientifically proven that violent criminals certainly possess some kind of mental disorder or biological damage to some part of the brain, or some abnormality in the level of certain hormones.

However, environmental factors cannot be ignored, because one’s background, upbringing, and social interaction play a great role in the development of a certain behavior. References Ferguson, C.J. (2008). An evolutionary approach to understanding violent antisocial behavior: diagnostic implications for a dual-process etiology. Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, 8(4), 321-343. Kotulak, R. (1997). How the brain gets damaged. Inside the Brain: Revolutionary Discoveries of How the Mind Works.

United States of America: Andrews McMeel Publishing. Seigel, L.J. (2008). The causes of violence. Criminology. USA: Cengage Learning. Tehrani, J., &Mednick, S. (2000). Genetic factors and criminal behavior. Federal Probation, 64, 24-28. Youth Violence. (2001). Chapter 3 -- The Developmental Dynamics of Youth Violence. Retrieved February 27, 2013, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=youth&part=A12504