Desist
To spontaneously stop commit crime
Development Theories
Theories that attempt to explain the "natural history" of a criminal career; its onset, the course it follows and its termination.
Life-course Theories
Theories reflecting the view that criminality is a dynamic process, influenced by many characteristics, traits and experiences, and that behavior changes accordantly, for better or worst, over the life course
Latent Trait (propensity) Theories
theories reflecting the view that criminal behavior is controlled by a master trait, present at birth or soon after, that remains stable and unchanging throughout a persons lifetime.
Problem Behavior Syndrome (PBS)
A cluster of antisocial behaviors that may include family dysfunction, substance abuse, smoking, precocious sexually and early pregnancy, educational underachievement, suicide attempt, sensation seeking, and unemployment, as well as crime.
Authority Conflict Theory
Path to a criminal career that begins with early stubborn behavior and defiance of parents.
Covert Pathways
Path to a criminal career that begins with a minor underhanded behavior and progresses to fire starting and theft
Overt Pathways
Path to a criminal career that begins with minor aggression, leads to physical fighting, and eventually escalates to violent crime.
Adolenscence-limited Offender
One who follows the most common criminal trajectory, in which antisocial behavior peaks in adolescence and then diminishes.
Life-course Persister
One of the small group of offenders whose criminal careers continue well into adulthood.
Integrated Theories
Models of crime causation that weave social and individual variables into a complex explanatory chain
Age-Graded Theory
According to Robert Sampson and John Laub, discrete factors influence people t different stages of their development, so the propensity to commit crimes is neither stable nor unyielding. The likelihood of commit crimes is linked to the accumulation (or absence) of social capital, social control, and human decision making.
Turning Points
According to Laub and Sampson, the life events that alter the development of a criminal career
Social Capital
Positive, life-sustaining relations with individuals and institutions
Latent Trait
A stable feature, characteristic, property, or condition, present at birth or soon after, that makes some people crime-prone over the life course.
General Theory of Crime (GTC)
Gottfredson and Hirschi's developmental theory, which modifies social control theory by integrating concepts from biosocial, psychological , routine activities and rational choice theories
Self-control Theory
Gottfredson and Hirshis view that the cause of delinquent behavior is impulsive personality. Kids who are impulsive may have a weak bond to society.
developmental criminology
attempt to provide a more global vision of a criminal career encompassing its onset, continuation, and termination
trajectory theory
suggests that there are multiple trajectories in a criminal career
cumulative disadvantage
repeat negative experiences
state dependence
kids who have the propensity to commit crime will find that this latent trait profoundly and permanently disrupts normal socialization
self-control
people with a lack of this are considered impulsive, insensitive to other people's feelings, physical (rather than mental), risk takers, shortsighted, and nonverbal