Chapter 9 Developmental Theories:
From Delinquency to Crime to Desistance
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Chapter Summary
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Chapter Nine is an overview of the developmental
theories.
The Chapter begins with an overall discussion of
delinquency and the patterns associated with
delinquency.
The chapter continues with a discussion of ADHD
and conduct disorder, and how these disorders
are related to delinquency.
The Chapter then turns the discussion to the
major developmental theories, as well as an
evaluation of each of the theories.
Chapter Nine concludes with the policy
implications that developmental theorists adhere
to.
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Chapter Summary
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After reading this chapter, students should
be able to:
Understand the importance of delinquency
Identify risk factors for delinquency
Understand Agnew’s super traits theory
Explain Sampson and Laub’s age grade theory
Discuss Farrington’s ICAP theory
Discuss Moffitt’s dual pathway theory
Evaluate the developmental theories
Recognize the policy implications of the
developmental theories
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Introduction
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Developmental theories are dynamic in that
they emphasize that individuals develop along
different pathways, and as they develop
factors that were previously meaningful to
them no longer are, and factors that previously
meant little to them suddenly become
meaningful.
Developmental theorists look at social,
psychological, and biological factors
simultaneously.
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Introduction
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Delinquency: A legal term that
distinguishes between youthful
offenders and adult offenders
that has its origins in the concept
of culpability.
Except in rare instances, juvenile
offenders are not referred to as
criminals. Acts that are forbidden
by law are called delinquent acts
when committed by juveniles.
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The Extent of Delinquency
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Juveniles do commit a disproportionate
percentage of the UCR’s Part I index crimes.
In 2003, youths under 18 accounted for
15.5% of Part I index violent crimes and
28.9% of Part I index property crimes.
Delinquent pattern appears at puberty and
they slowly burns itself out after reaching
its peak between 16 and 18.
The age peak in delinquency remains
unexplained by any known set of sociological
variables.
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Puberty, Adolescence, and Change
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Puberty: A developmental stage that
marks the onset of the transition from
childhood to adulthood.
Adolescence is a process that begins at
puberty and ends with adulthood.
Adolescence is a period of limbo in which
individuals no longer need parental care,
but are not yet ready to take on the roles
and responsibilities of adulthood.
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Figure 9.1.
Illustrating the Age Curve in Different Countries at Different
Times
From Ellis & Walsh, Criminology: A Global Perspective (2000) p. 109.
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Figure 9.2.
Testosterone Levels of Human Males and Females Across
the Lifespan
Source: Ellis and Walsh, Criminology: A Global Perspective (2000)
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Puberty, Adolescence, and Change
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During adolescence there is an increase in
testosterone, changes in the ration of
excitatory and inhibitory
neurotransmitters, and the physical
restructuring of the brain.
The earlier the onset of puberty, the
greater the level of problem behavior for
both boys and girls.
Around the age of 20, the transmitters
start to decrease and the inhibitory
transmitters start to increase. Thus, more
adult-like personality traits emerge.
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Puberty, Adolescence, and Change
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Terrence Thornberry, David Huizinga, and
Rolf Loeber (2004) focus on the escalation
of seriousness of delinquent acts being
committed as boys age.
The overall finding is that as boys get
older, their crimes become more serious
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Figure 9.3
Three Pathways to Boys’ Disruptive Behavior and Delinquency
Source: Thornberry, Huizinga, & Loeber, 2004. U.S. Department of Justice: Juvenile Justice
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Table 9.1 Delinquency Risk Factors by Domain
Domain
Early Onset (Ages 6–11) Late Onset (Ages 12–14) Protective Factors
Individual
Being male
ADHD/impulsivity
Medical, physical problems
Aggression
Low IQ
General offenses
Problem (antisocial
behavior)
Substance abuse
Exposure to TV violence
Antisocial attitudes, beliefs
Dishonestya
Restlessness
Difficulty concentrating a
General offenses
Risk taking
Aggression a
Being male
Physical violence
Antisocial attitudes, beliefs
Crimes against persons
Low IQ
Substance abuse
Intolerant attitude
toward deviance
High IQ
Being female
Positive social orientation
Perceived sanction for
transgressions
Family
Low socioeconomic status
Antisocial parents
Poor parent-child
relationship
Harsh, lax, or inconsistent
parenting
Broken home
Separation from parents
Abusive parents
Neglect
Poor parent-child relationship
Low socioeconomic status
Harsh, lax, or inconsistent
parenting
Poor monitoring, supervision
Antisocial parents
Broken home
Abusive parents
Family conflict a
Warm, supportive
relationship with parents
and other adults
Parent’s positive
evaluation of child’s peers
Parental monitoring
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Table 9.1 Delinquency Risk Factors by Domain
Domain Early Onset (Ages 6–11) Late Onset (Ages 12–14) Protective Factors
School
Poor attitude,
performance
Poor attitude,
performance
Academic failure
Commitment to school
Recognition for
involvement in
conventional activities
Peer group
Weak social ties
Antisocial peers
Weak social ties
Antisocial, delinquent
peers
Gang membership
Friends who engage in
conventional behavior
Neighborhood crime,
drugs
Neighborhood
disorganization
Stable, organized
neighborhood
Community
Adapted from Office of the Surgeon General, 2001. U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. a. Males only.
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ADHD & CD
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Risk factor: Something in individuals’ personal
characteristics or their environment that increases the
probability of violent offending.
It is typical for risk factors to cluster together because
the tendency is for miseries to multiply and advantages to
aggregate.
ADHD: A chronic neurological condition that is
behaviorally manifested as constant restlessness,
impulsiveness, difficulty with peers, disruptive behavior,
short attention span, academic underachievement, risk
taking behavior, and extreme boredom.
Some children diagnosed with ADHD show EEG patterns
of under arousal similar to adult psychopaths.
Such a brain wave pattern is experienced subjectively as
boredom.
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ADHD & CD
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ADHD is related to a wide variety of antisocial
behaviors.
Conduct disorder (CD): The persistent display of
serious antisocial actions that are extreme given the
child’s developmental level and have a significant
impact on the rights of others.
ADHD delinquents are more likely to persist in their
offending as adults, but this probability rises
dramatically for ADHD children also diagnosed with
CD.
ADHD does not represent a hopeless pathology that
leads its victims down the road to inevitable
criminality, particularly when CD is not present.
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Major Developmental Theories
 Some
theories assume that a latent
trait—a “master trait”—influences
behavioral choices across times and
situations while others do not.
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Major Developmental Theories
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All theories maintain that although a
criminal career may be initiated at
any time, it is almost always begun in
childhood.
Developmental theories require
longitudinal studies.
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Robert Agnew’s General Theory or
“Super Traits” Theory
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In the super traits theory, Agnew
identifies five life domains that contain
possible crime-generating factors:
Personality
Family
School
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Robert Agnew’s General Theory or
“Super Traits” Theory
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Peers
Work
Agnew identifies the latent traits of
low self-control and irritability as
“super traits”
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Robert Agnew’s General Theory or
“Super Traits” Theory
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The neurological and endocrine changes
during adolescence temporarily increase
irritability/low self-control among
adolescents who limit their offending to
that period, while for those who continue to
offend irritability/low self-control is a
stable characteristic.
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Figure 9.4 Agnew’s General or "Super Traits" Theory
PERSONALITY
Low Self-Control/Irritability
FAMILY
Poor parenting, child
does not learn selfcontrol or
To curb irritability. Poor
marriage
SCHOOL
Negative school
experiences, low
educational level
PEERS
Associations
with delinquent
peers
WORK
Unemploymen
t & poor
paying jobs
DELINQUENCY & CRIME
Note: These five domains interact and feed back on one another.
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Sampson & Laub’s Age
Graded Theory
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Age-graded theory is essentially a social
control theory extended into adulthood to
include adult bonds.
People who bond well with conventional
others build social capital: A store of
positive relationships in social networks
built on norms of reciprocity and trust
developed over time upon which the
individual can draw for support.
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Sampson and Laub’s Age Graded Theory
 Life
is a series of transitions which may
change a person’s life trajectory in prosocial
directions, which Sampson & Laub call
turning points.
 Age-graded theory strongly emphasizes
human agency.
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David Farrington’s Integrated Cognitive
Antisocial Potential (ICAP) Theory
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The key concepts in ICAP theory are
antisocial potential (AP), which is a
person’s risk or propensity to engage in
crime, and cognition, which is the
thinking or decision making process that
turns potential into actual process.
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Figure 9.5
Sampson and Laub’s Age-Graded Developmental Theory
Childhood
Low SES; low
IQ, difficult
temperament,
family
disposition
Adolescence
Poor bonds to
parents and
school
Serious
delinquency
Social Capital
Lower level of
risk factors
Good bonds to
parents and
school
Early Adulthood
Poor
marriage,
poor job
Late Adulthood
Continued
offending
Gradual
desisting
from
offending
Turning Points
Minor
delinquency
Good marriage,
good job
Desist from
offending
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David Farrington’s Integrated Cognitive
Antisocial Potential (ICAP) Theory
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Individuals with long-term AP tend to
come from poor families, to be poorly
socialized, low on anxiety, impulsive,
sensation seeking, low IQ, and fail in
school.
Short-term AP individuals suffer any
deficits, but may temporarily increase
their AP in response to certain situations
or inducements.
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David Farrington’s Integrated Cognitive
Antisocial Potential (ICAP) Theory
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Short-term AP can turn into longterm AP over time as a consequence
of offending.
Desisting from offending occurs for
both social and individual reasons and
occurs at different rates according
to a person’s level of AP.
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Terrie Moffitt’s Dual Pathway
Developmental Theory
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The vast majority of youths who offend
during adolescence desist and there are a
small number of them who continue to offend
in adulthood.
Life-course persistent offenders are
individuals who begin offending prior to
puberty and continue well into adulthood.
Adolescent limited (AL) offenders have a
different developmental history that places
them on a prosocial trajectory that is
temporarily derailed at adolescence.
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Life Course Persistent:
Applicable to Congenitally Predisposed Youths
Temperamental and
neuropsychological
deficits combine
with inept parenting
(passive G-E
correlation)
Antisocial
characteristics,
negative
interaction with
others (reactive
G-E correlation)
Association with
delinquent peers
(active G-E
correlation)
Delinquency, crime,
and numerous other
antisocial behaviors
(active G-E
correlation)
Adolescent-Limited:
Applicable to Many "Normal" Youths During Adolescence
Early puberty, no
real social role,
desire for
independence.
Long wait for adult
roles
Association with
delinquent
peers.
Antisocial
behavior mimicked
and reinforced
Temporary
antisocial
characteristics
Delinquency. Will
desist with
neurological and social
maturity
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Terrie Moffitt’s
Dual Pathway Developmental Theory
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Adolescent antisocial behavior is adaptive
because it offers opportunities to gain
valuable resources they could not
otherwise obtain.
Association with delinquent peers may be
necessary to initiate delinquency for AL
offenders, and there is little or no genetic
influence on AL delinquency.
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Desisting
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For some AL offenders, desistance from
antisocial behavior is abrupt, for others it
is a slower process.
AL offenders desist from offending
because they are psychologically healthy
and healthy youths respond adaptively to
changing contingencies.
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What about Adolescents who abstain
from Delinquency Altogether?
Given the personality profiles of
abstainers, it is probable that they are
individuals located at the hyper tail of the
ANS arousal distribution, and thus have
excessive guilt feelings and excessive fear
of the negative consequences of
nonconformity.
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Evaluation of Developmental Theories
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Developmental theories offer many
advantages because of their dynamic
nature.
Developmental theories generally
integrate and consider sociological,
psychological & biological factors as a
coherent whole.
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Evaluation of Developmental Theories
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They follow the same individuals over
long periods of time.
They do not rely on convenient samples.
The can identify characteristics that
lead to onset, persistence, and
desistance from crime in the same
individuals.
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Policy and Prevention:
Implications of Developmental Theories
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Developmental theories support the same
kind of family-based nurturing strategies
supported by biosocial and social- and selfcontrol theories.
The Nurse Family Partnership is one
program advocated by developmental
theorists.
Developmental theorists also advocate the
Fast Track Project.
Developmental theories tell us that human
life is characterized by dynamism and
people can change at any time.
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