The Adolescent-Limited and the Life-Course-Persistent Offenders - Essay Example

Differences between life-course persistent and adolescent limited offenders and a consideration of the contributing developmental factors: Name: Instructor: Course: Date: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LIFE-COURSE PERSISTENT AND ADOLESCENT LIMITED OFFENDERS AND A CONSIDERATION OF THE CONTRIBUTING DEVELOPMENTAL FACTORS: In early childhood, there is the presence of crime though it rises when individuals attain 18 years of age. As the developmental taxonomy theory illustrates, there are two types of offenders called the adolescent-limited and the life-course persistent offenders. The two offenders are quite different from each other based on the onset and the length it takes in the career. Each of the group has a very different cause and history. One of the groups has a smaller percentage who engages in antisocial behaviours of any kind in every stage in life. The other group is the largest and becomes antisocial only in adolescence. In life-course-persistent antisocial behaviour, the neuropsychological problems of the children relate with their environments those are criminogenic as they develop while in adolescence-limited antisocial behaviour theory, there is a maturity gap that is currently created thereby pushing the adolescence to copy normative antisocial behaviours. In childhood, there are antisocial behaviours that include vandalism, aggression, running away, theft, and many other conducts that are not socially normal and are also unexpected. This social abnormality takes place as the child develops. Studies have shown that aggression is not changeable and becomes permanent as the individual develops and approaches teenage. As such a child grows, they become unskilled in other social aspects and even as they become adults, they are antisocial and do not adapt to changes as fast. Antisocial behaviours thus continue in life and are very stable as the individual continues to grow. (Piquero, A. R., Farrington, D. P., Welsh, B. C., Tremblay, R. E. and Jennings, W., 2008) In life-course-persistent individuals, there is a very big rate of antisocial behaviour in very many situations and across time. This kind of behaviour is believed to start very early in peoples lives. In childhood, it could be caused by factors such as a bad relationship between the child and the parents where communication is poor, temperament difficulties and other difficulties such as those found in education. This makes the child fail to learn other alternatives to social behaviour and the consequences of their antisocial behaviour ensnare them. The consequences of this in turn are pregnancies in teenage and school dropout. The individual thereby lacks the opportunity to reform in behaviour, it becomes a chain of negativity, and with time, they are not able to change completely. This project into a very miserable individual who toss themselves into drug and alcohol abuse, employments that to them are unsatisfactory, illnesses of the mind as well as unhealthy relationships.(Piquero, A. R., Farrington, D. P., Welsh, B. C., Tremblay, R. E. and Jennings, W., 2008) In adolescence-limited offenders, their crime careers are short lived since they are temporary. These kinds of criminals are not consistence in their antisocial behaviours in the various situations. They only engage in an antisocial behaviour where they find value in doing so. This way, they are able to control their antisocial responses since they know when and in which situations they use the antisocial behaviour for their benefit. With this in mind, these criminals use the antisocial behaviour as a resource for them maturely and feel reinforced by the fact. In some situations however, these criminals age and attain what they had desired as teens and they view their criminal act as a very bad thing. This way, the delinquents loose the motivation for their acts. It is thus evident that adolescence limited behaviour is controllable for those who realise it and feel the need to do so through reinforcements and other punishments. The behaviour reduces once one leaves high school, marry someone who is well socially and have an involvement in things like a fulltime job or other time consuming chores. Those in adolescence limited antisocial behaviour outnumber those in life-course-persistent antisocial behaviour. Offenders in the adolescence-limited group make profits from their actions, succeed in almost all aspects of life such as a good lifestyle while their peers on the other side are not able to turn away from their evil acts, and are persistent in crimes. The results for the life- course –persistent offenders are thus very miserable. It is thus clear that in adolescent limited offenders, the antisocial behaviour is only seen during the teen years and disappears as one enters adult life. This is because in the life of the children, there are factors that make them develop problems in their emotions and behaviours. Many researchers have linked the developmental problems with the kind of interaction a child has with the environment and other persons around them. It has been shown that even if some of these children develop problems on these grounds, others have been able to escape them due to their resilience. There are both the risk factors and the protective factors that are linked to the adolescence-limited behaviour. If the environment of the family is dysfunctional, it means that the risk of the child developing the problems is increases than in a normal functional family. To prevent such risks, the family need to have a favourable environment for their children as a preventive measure against development of the antisocial conduct in their children. Other than the environmental factors in the family, there are other factors from the individual that contribute to the development of antisocial behaviour in the young. These individual risk factors include lack of self-control, risk taking behaviours, concentration problems and aggressiveness. In addition to these, if a child starts violence behaviour early in them life, it could lead to the development of the antisocial behaviours in them. Some of the children who develop antisocial behaviours in their teen age are also linked to their favourable attitudes to abnormal behaviour. In families, there are those social interactions that relate to crimes. For example, when parents involve in harsh disciplines in their children, neglect and physical abuse, the child may develop behaviours that are not up to the expectations of the community. The use of drugs in the family and other criminal activities are some of the factors that make children of such families to develop such bad behaviours. The parents of the children should always involve with their children highly. In schools still, the environment presented to the children should be up to standards since some of the interactions there results to development of bad behaviours in the students that would lead them into becoming adolescence-limited offenders. These include the academic failures, and student becoming uncommitted to the activities in schools. Though the causes of the offences may be similar, the two forms arise where with the life course persistent offenders persist into adulthood with a small proportion while with adolescence limited, the behaviour drops when the individual reaches late adolescence and reforms. The two types of offenders are thus very different and their controls are also very different. The adolescent offenders reform their behaviour before adolescence and in their adult hood; they are very normal people free from the bad antisocial behaviour. They however participate in this kind of behaviour in the adolescence lives and the majority fall in this class. On the other hand, the life course persistent offenders continue with their antisocial behaviour all their life and in their adolescence life, they stabilize in their antisocial behaviour all the way from their childhood. The life course persistent offenders are considered to be different from other offenders in that the adolescent limited offenders commit the crimes as a way of gaining independence. This however should never be overlooked since when encouraged it could lead to crimes that are questionable in the courts of law. While it is possible to identify the adolescence offended in their adolescence life, it is very difficult for the life course persistent offenders to be recognised because it is during adolescence that many involve themselves in the crimes. Even though the crimes committed at that time may look similar by the two groups, it is important to note that they are committed by the two types of the offenders where one of the groups will reform while the other will remain persistent in their life. It is thus only possible to differentiate them depending on the childhood history presented to you about the two individuals since they have different childhood behaviour. When analysed critically, there are those who during their childhood had a high level of aggressiveness and those who lacked it. The types of offences committed by the two-group s of offenders also differ. For example, on looking at the violent and the non-violent crimes, it shows that in adolescence the two groups commit different crimes. It is evident that offenders in the adolescence-limited group engage in crimes that benefit them and show independence from the control their parents had over them. The crimes that the adolescence limited offenders commit include vandalism and theft. On the other hand, the life course persistent offenders have a very wide range of crimes they commit. The crimes include all violence crimes and fraud. While environmental risks and influence from other crime offenders relate to adolescence-limited offenders, aggressiveness signifies life course persistent offenders. As the two groups of individuals grow, it is hypothesised that the life course persistent offenders are likely to develop poor health in all aspects including the mental and the physical aspects. They are also at a high risk of death in early age and cardiovascular diseases. This is in comparison to the adolescence-limited offenders who have a low risk of all of the adverse effects associated with the life course persistent offenders. In relation to health outcomes, the life course persistent offenders also stand a higher probability that the adolescence limited offenders. Crimes in youths are thus very common from the two groups and there are very many factors that propel them to committing them. Many factors interplay in the development of antisocial behaviour. However, there are those individuals though presented with the same factors do not commit the crimes. There are those forces that an individual cannot control and find them in crimes. (Farrington et al., 2006). The smallest group of offenders being the life course persistent offenders commit majority of the crimes. They are known to commit very serious crimes in relation to properties, and involve in the violent crimes that are very serious. Other crimes they commit are of other types. In the life course persistent offenders, the development of an individual is looked at across the life span of those individuals. The person involved in the antisocial behaviour had the same behaviour in their childhood life where they could be involved in the crimes and this goes on to their adolescence life. In adolescence, they combine with other offenders from the adolescence-limited group and their character goes on even in adulthood. Age determines the progress of the individual in terms of the roles and transitions that the individual undergoes socially. The pathways of the individual also changes with time as the social development is tampered with. For example, the educational career of an individual deteriorates as one grows since the antisocial behaviour stabilizes and does not change to the betterment of such an individual. When such an individual executes long-term trajectories, they encounter short-term changes in their lives socially. For example, a married person may find himself or herself in a divorce, which had not been the intention of the marriage in the first place. With age, there are no developments of the individual’s career or the relationship they are in. there are various trajectories that interlock in series in the life course persistent type of antisocial behaviour. This antisocial behaviour become persistent in life and has an impact in almost all aspects of human life. The individual is unable to focus on a thing that will benefit them and instead, everything they start on is interrupted. The kind of transitions in this type are either disruptive or consistence. Transitions such as those found in early pregnancy are off age and produce disorders and the direction of the route taken by the individual is changed. In this form of offenders still, different people choose on what route to take. One person may take choice to life on crimes while the other chooses to live free from the crimes. Several people have tried to explain how this antisocial behaviour starts and develops into an offending career. As said earlier, factors such as family, school, individual community and peer influence the development of life course persistent antisocial behaviour. To research on all these factors, a longitudinal research is conducted and the changes in individual as time oases analysed. As a conclusion, in adolescence limiting antisocial behaviour, the individual does not find it easy to refrain in committing a crime in their adolescent lives. These individuals do not have consistency in the way they commit the crime like in the case with life course persistent offenders. However, there are a few who do not engage themselves in committing the crimes. The fact that some have accessed the opportunities and late puberty does not mean individuals in this group will not commit crimes. The behaviour of these individuals is explained by the fact that they receive motivation into the crimes and considering that the age bracket is lengthened, adolescent delay into getting to adulthood. The motivation is also brought about from the social mimicry since who adopt the adolescence limited behaviour value it because to them they become successful. Many thus end up imitating the act as a valuable resource to them. To the adolescence-limited offenders, this is a valuable resource since it gives them a mature feeling as well as the advantages that comes along with it. More so, they are propelled into crimes by the desire to rebel and the need to fit in the society independently. These individuals however change as they enter into adulthood and they do not require the recognition they wanted in their adolescence. (Farrington, D. P., Coid, J. W., Harnett, L., Joliffe, D., Soteriou, N., Turner, R. and West, D. J., 2006). It is evident that the two forms of antisocial behaviours are very different both in their etiological and history. The general difference between them is that life course persistence behaviour is persistent through all stages of life while in adolescence limited behaviour, the behaviour is only limited in adolescence stage. While in adolescence limited behaviour the individual is capable of reforming back to a better, person as per the expectations of the society, in life course persistence behaviour the individual do not reform and their living becomes deteriorated completely in all aspects of life. (Piquero, A. R., Farrington, D. P., Welsh, B. C., Tremblay, R. E. and Jennings, W., 2008). References Farrington, D. P., Coid, J. W., Harnett, L., Joliffe, D., Soteriou, N., Turner, R. and West, D. J. (2006). Criminal Careers and Life Success: New Findings from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development. London: Home Office. Retrieved from www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/r281.pdf Farrington et al. (2006). Criminal careers up to age 50 and life success up to age 48: new findings from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development. Home Office Research Study 299. London: Home Office. Retrieved from http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/hors299.pdf Piquero, A. R., Farrington, D. P., Welsh, B. C., Tremblay, R. E. and Jennings, W. (2008). Effects of Early Family/Parent Training Programmes on Antisocial Behaviour and Delinquency. Campbell Collaboration Systematic Review. Retrieved from http://db.c2admin.org/doc-pdf/Piquero_EFPT_review.pdf Read More