Criminal Behaviour During the Lifecourse.
(200700018) - Partial Test 2 (Week 4 – 7)
Good Luck! ;-)
Week 4, criminal behavior in childhood: family functioning and parenting
Van de Weijer, S.G.A., Bijleveld, C.C.J.H., & Blokland, A.A.J. (2014). The
intergenerational transmission of violent offending. Journal of Family Violence,
29, 109-118.
Keywords:
Intergenerational transmission, violence, family, concentration of offending, timing
Introduction
This study focuses on homogenous subsets of crime which are associated with
relatively similar skills and traits, which may offer more insights into the
intergenerational transmission of crime and therefore focuses on the
intergenerational transmission of violent crimes, because it is expected that the
transmission of violent crime is stronger than other crimes: might be driven by other
mechanisms.
Twofold research question:
1. The extent to which violent offending is concentrated in families and transmitted
between three generations in the Netherlands investigated.
2. The mechanisms that underlie this intergenerational transmission of violent crimes
are explored (from father to son only).
Underlying Mechanisms
Farrington (2002) described six, non-mutually exclusive, mechanisms that might
explain why offending concentrates in certain families and is transmitted from one
generation to the other.
1. The intergenerational transmission of crime might be part of a larger cycle of
deprivation. Risk factors for criminal behavior (poverty, disrupted family, teenage
parenting) are transmitted between generations.
2. Intergenerational transmission of crime is mediated by risk factors (delinquent
parents live and raise children in bad neighborhood have children at younger ages
and use inadequate child-rearing methods increases chances of criminality)
3. Assortative mating. Female offenders have children with male offenders
children are exposed to higher risk for criminal development.
4. Social Learning. Younger generations might imitate and learn criminal behavior
from older generations. Expected to play a bigger role in transmission of violent
crimes, since children of parents who commit violent crimes are more likely to be
exposed to the criminal behavior of their parents, than children from parents who
,commit other crimes. Exposure to caregiver intimate partner violence increased
involvement in own intimate partner violence.
5. The intergenerational transmission of offending might be mediated by genetic
mechanisms. Criminals have genetic predisposition for criminal behavior which might
be transmitted to their offspring.
6. Criminal parents have criminal children due to an official bias towards known
criminal families (some families are monitored more intensively by law enforcement,
which leads to an increased risk for the conviction of children of criminal parents).
Results
(More results can be found in discussion to avoid overlap)
Intergenerational transmission
The results indicate that men with violent fathers had a significantly higher risk to
become violent offenders than men without violent fathers, the transmission of violent
crimes was stronger than the transmission of non-violent crimes.
Timing
Testing whether the timing of paternal conviction affected the intergenerational
transmission. Sons of fathers who committed violent crimes only before their birth
were not at increased risk to commit a violent crime. Paternal violent offending after
birth, significantly increased the odds of a violent conviction. Violent crimes
committed during their son’s childhood and adolescence increased the probability of
a conviction for a violent crime of their sons. Sons of fathers who were both convicted
during their son’s childhood and adolescence were at increased risk to become
violent offenders as well. Paternal violence during the son’s adolescence did not
increase the son’s chance to commit a violent crime.
Discussion
A considerable number of men from all three generations were convicted for at least
one violent crime, while the prevalence of violent offending in women was relatively
low. Younger generations have more often been convicted for a violent offense by
the age 27 or 46 than older generations younger generations start offending
violently at a younger age and percentage of violent offenders in younger
generations will further increase when they become older, since violent offenders
among older generations also increased considerably after the age of 27 or 46.
The high concentration of offending in families is a cross-cultural phenomenon (for
Western countries) and violent crimes a more concentrated in families (can be
concluded by usage of different methods). Transmission of violence between father
and son is stronger than the transmission of non-violent crimes (only significant for
older generations). Social learning plays a bigger role in the intergenerational
transmission of violent crime than hereditary factors (fathers who only convicted
crime before son’s birth didn’t increase the risk for their sons to become violent).
Father convicted after birth, increased son’s risk to commit a violent crime.
Paternal violence during a son’s childhood and adolescence increases the risk of
becoming a violent offender. Paternal violence during a son’s adulthood does not
(less likely to live in a paternal home). These results seem to suggest that official
bias towards known criminal families does not fully explain the intergenerational
transmission of violent crimes, since not all paternal violence (i.e., before the child’s
birth and during the child’s adulthood) is associated with convictions in the offspring.
, However, it might also be possible that the official bias decreases with time. In that
case, families including persons with a more recent conviction (i.e., after the birth of
the child) are monitored more intensively by law enforcement bodies than families
including persons with a less recent conviction (i.e., before the birth of the child).
Limitations
Limited by the use of official conviction data: much violent crime is not captured by
official statistics. It is possible that some children do have violent parents but that
these were never convicted. Fathers who were convicted for a violent crime during a
certain period, could have performed their violent behavior over a longer period of
time. It is unknown whether the children witnessed the violence of their fathers
(necessary information for the social learning mechanism). Also, unknown whether
the children were victims of the parental violent crime (maltreatment in youth, leads
to maltreatment of own children).
Wright, J.P. & Cullen, F.T. (2001). Parental efficacy and delinquent behavior: Do
control and support matter? Criminology, 39(3), 677-706.
Abstract:
“Parental efficacy”: to highlight crime reducing effects associated with parent who
support and control their youth.
The interrelationship between parental controls and supports and their joint influence
on youthful misbehavior will be discussed.
Results of study:
1. Support and control are intertwined
2. parental efficacy exerts substantive effects on adolescent delinquency.
Sampson & Laub (1997): neighborhoods and individuals vary in their capacity for
efficacious action. Both forms are situated rather than global. And there is an analogy
between individual efficacy and neighborhood efficacy that both are activated
processes that seek to achieve an intended effect. The intended effect of collective
efficacy was supervising children and maintain public order. Neighborhood crime
rates would be influenced by two social factors or processes: informal social control
and mutual trust among residents, these factors were intertwined: the willingness of
local residents to intervene for the common good (informal social control) depends on
conditions of mutual trust and solidarity among neighbors.
Parents differ in the extent to which they effectively undertake the task of limiting their
children’s delinquency. Analysis of this study leads to a parallel point to Sampson et
al. in their macrolevel work on collective efficacy: but at the micro- or individual level:
parental support and control are intertwined and form an important basis for parental
efficacy in the task of keeping children out of trouble.
Parenting and delinquent involvement
