Question:
What is the difference between adolescent-limited offenders and life-course persistent ones? Having knowledge of these theoretical frameworks, how can such perspectives assist parents and teachers in preventing ‘at-risk’ youths from offending?
Introduction
Throughout the years, many criminologists have developed various theories on youth offending in hopes of being able to use their knowledge to prevent offending. Although one of the most influential theories to advance the field of criminology was developed by Terrie Moffit who is an American psychologist. Moffit developed her theory in 1993 which provides a dual taxonomy of offending behaviour that explains the age graded crime curve. The first pathway of the dual taxonomy is the adolescence-limited offender who displays antisocial behaviour during adolescence but …show more content…
In this stage the youth is maturing biologically but is still too young to be able to access adult privileges and responsibilities that they desire. This stage was titled the “maturity gap” by Terrie Moffit to describe the dissatisfaction experienced by the youth who remain dependent on their parents and are eager to be independent. At this stage, many youth become drawn to minor crime as go through a phrased titled “social mimicry”. Youth find it appealing to mimic delinquent peers as a way to assert their authority and independence away from their parents and gain social acceptance among their friend group. However, it is likely that a youth in this category does not experience any disadvantages in their life that will influence persistent offending levels such as low educational attainment, lack of social networks, substance dependency, and neurological impairments. Due to the typical absence of these intervening factors, adolescent limited offenders typically are able to desist from crime as they mature into
What is the difference between adolescent-limited offenders and life-course persistent ones? Having knowledge of these theoretical frameworks, how can such perspectives assist parents and teachers in preventing ‘at-risk’ youths from offending?
Introduction
Throughout the years, many criminologists have developed various theories on youth offending in hopes of being able to use their knowledge to prevent offending. Although one of the most influential theories to advance the field of criminology was developed by Terrie Moffit who is an American psychologist. Moffit developed her theory in 1993 which provides a dual taxonomy of offending behaviour that explains the age graded crime curve. The first pathway of the dual taxonomy is the adolescence-limited offender who displays antisocial behaviour during adolescence but …show more content…
In this stage the youth is maturing biologically but is still too young to be able to access adult privileges and responsibilities that they desire. This stage was titled the “maturity gap” by Terrie Moffit to describe the dissatisfaction experienced by the youth who remain dependent on their parents and are eager to be independent. At this stage, many youth become drawn to minor crime as go through a phrased titled “social mimicry”. Youth find it appealing to mimic delinquent peers as a way to assert their authority and independence away from their parents and gain social acceptance among their friend group. However, it is likely that a youth in this category does not experience any disadvantages in their life that will influence persistent offending levels such as low educational attainment, lack of social networks, substance dependency, and neurological impairments. Due to the typical absence of these intervening factors, adolescent limited offenders typically are able to desist from crime as they mature into