Terrie Moffitt's Dual Pathway Developmental Theory Analysis

Improved Essays
In 2012, nearly 9.5 million crimes were committed in the US, according to the Uniform Crime Reports, or UCR (fbi.gov). Over 3.4 million, or 55% of all the crimes, were committed by juveniles or adults under 30. Furthermore, the UCR reports 62% of property crimes were committed by juveniles or adults under 30 (fbi.gov). The tendency of crime rates is to be higher in youth is one factor that led Terrie Moffitt’s to develop her Dual Pathway Theory.
The Dual Pathway Developmental Theory speaks of juveniles engaging in delinquency because they are either life-course persistent offenders (LCPS) or adolescent limited offenders (ALS). The LCPS typically begin offending prior to puberty, and continue well into adulthood. Moffitt describes the antisocial
…show more content…
Braithwaite came up with 13 facts about crime in reality, and the details of Moffitt’s theory at least support half of them. The Braithwaite facts that Moffit’s theory supports include the following: crime is perpetrated disproportionately by 15-25 year olds, young people who have friendships with criminals are more likely to engage in crime themselves, crime is committed disproportionately by unmarried people, young people who are strongly attached to their school are less likely to engage in crime, young people who do poorly in school are more likely to engage in crime, and young people who have high educational and occupational aspirations are less likely to engage in …show more content…
According to Moffitt’s theory adolescent limited offenders have a “reduce ability to listen and read receptively, to problem solve, to express oneself in speech and writing and to remember”. (Harper, 2013, p. 165) So this supports the fact young people who do poorly in school are more likely to engage in crime. These children can have normal brain function, but lack of verbal skills, attention span, and act impulsivity. Adolescent limited offenders usually have hard time reading, and doing math, so when they try to get a job they wouldn’t be able to get it and turn to crime. But after a few years and maturing with positive support system most adolescent offenders stop their criminal ways. Life-course offenders who have neurological problems, struggle in school but have no positive support system. They have an internal drive to commit a crime. They start to do poorly in school or eventually will drop out sooner or

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    A young offender who serves their time and is then released back into society is far less likely to offend again when compared to a juvenile who has spend their entire young adult life in an adult facility (Reaves, 2001). If a juvenile is rehabilitated and becomes a contributing member of society, money is saved but more importantly a life is…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    When youth grow up in poverty, needing to provide for themselves or their family, and not with a good educational background, they often resort to criminal activities. They are not afraid of the consequences because going into the system is seen as a “rite of passage” and gives them more credit on the street (Conover,…

    • 1735 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If unchecked juvenile delinquency tends to produce an adult that commonly…

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In addition, having juvenile criminal records disallows many adolescents from participating in and receiving benefits such as scholarships, job eligibility, and potentially even higher education opportunities. This results in a vicious cycle—those who have committed crimes are not offered opportunities to improve themselves and their conditions, but rather are more likely to commit more crimes in the…

    • 1258 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    JJDPA Juvenile Crime

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Every single individual person that is living in the United States today and probably for years to come das been affected by juvenile crime. It not only affects parents, siblings, teachers, neighbors, and all families involved. This also affects the victims of crime, the bystander, and the perpetrators. Although the delinquency rates are experiencing a decrease, this is not true in many cities the rate is still remaining high. In these high crime cities numerous programs have attempted to try and lower this juvenile rate, but while there are a few that can be extremely successful and other programs have no impact and just minimal impact.…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Crime in the U.S has actually gone up since 1970 and they have also declined in the 1990’s and slowly going down in the U.S. today. Though crime has gone down as a whole, violent crimes have increased due to the non-stop violence that’s been going on for the past 30 years, property crimes have decreased as well. Gun homicides have gone down nearly 49% since the 90’s. There are 73.8 million youth under the age of 18 in the United States in 2012, 1.3 million of those juveniles have had criminal cases and that is just a statistic for those whom have gotten caught. I know plenty of young teens where I am from in Omaha, Nebraska that go down the wrong path that don’t have the right guidance they need to avoid these statistics.…

    • 1496 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Biological, Sociological, and Psychological Theories It is not secret that people are out committing crimes every day in the streets of our communities. Over the years there have been many theories developed in order to help understand why it is that people decide to take part in some of these criminal acts, while some people stand together and claim that this is a result of poor parenting and others arguing that it is due to the environment that the child is around. Regardless of one’s point of view, it is very clear that crimes are occurring and that biological, sociological, and psychological theories have been developed in an attempt to help understand why it is that some individuals take part in these crimes. There are many things that…

    • 1013 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    First, we will be analyzing Terrie Moffitt’s Dual Pathway Development Theory. In this theory, there are two major divisions of offenders. The Adolescent-Limited (AL) offenders, who commit crimes at an early age and whose crimes are basically minor in offense.…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Two Types Of Delinquency

    • 2306 Words
    • 10 Pages

    13.5) There are two types of delinquency life-course-persistent and adolescent-limited. ¾’s of adolescents engage in at least one criminal act before age 20. There are minor crimes such as underage drinking or serious crimes such as assault. Multiple crimes committed over time may lead to more major crimes later on.…

    • 2306 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gage Curry Professor Pollak WRTG-100-003 11 September 2016 The Single Story of Poverty-Stricken Neighborhoods Most people assume that rundown neighborhoods contribute nothing positive to society. I believe that not all impoverished neighborhoods should be perceived this way. It is unfair to speculate that every single neighborhood like this is exactly the same.…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The juvenile corrections have undergone considerable transformation as the criminal justice system started to change in the 20th century. Major changes affected fields such as diversion, decriminalization, deinstitutionalization, and due process. A contributing factor to the harsh penalties of juveniles is a failure to address any of the social problems that are closely related to the causes of the delinquency. Those social problems are poverty, underemployment, family disorganization, and substance abuse. Juvenile offenders differ from adult offenders, thus are treated differently, but the policies in the United States are changing about qualifications of when a young criminal is considered and treated as a juvenile.…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Average Juvenile Offender

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “Average Juvenile Offender” Talking about the traits of an Average Juvenile offender is their senses of mood towards anything, their feeling of stealing something they might see and want at the store such as food or any habit of just taking things without having to pay for it. They have the tendency to miss a lot of school, skip classes, go out with their friends having fun over at the park with gangs, groups, area’s that seem to not be nice where they follow the steps as in to becoming a juvenile offender meaning at such a young age you see kids now a days stealing, street fighting, running away from their parents that also want to be able to stop their bad acts before it is no longer able to be controlled at the set of their where they can…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Juvenile delinquency is a complicated and complex issue with a multitude of underlying causes and reasoning behind why it happens. Years of research and studies have taken place across generations to aid in a better understanding what factors contribute to it and what should be done to prevent it. Developmental Theory takes aim at the life cycle of juvenile delinquency from beginning to the epilogue. Life Course Theory lends reason to the idea that a combination of personality and environment shape and child into a delinquent. Latent trait points to physiology reasons.…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Youth Gangs

    • 1232 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Juveniles and young adults do not just commit a disproportionate number of offenses; they also have an impact on overall trends in crime (Blumstein & Wallman, 2000). It is important to understand the amount of influence our communities have on juveniles. Today, it seems that guns and drugs are easier to access than it may have been in the past and juveniles are involving themselves in more frequent crime. According to Mares (2010), youth gang members are more likely to engage in delinquent behaviors than those who are not involved in gangs. Research has shown gang issues are involved more in urban areas.…

    • 1232 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In 1993 Moffitt reported that “the increased rate of delinquency in adolescence indicated that delinquent behavior was a normative part of development, which peaked in the teen years and then desisted, however there was a small number of delinquents that continued to offend into adulthood and developed a pathological personality”(Moore, 2011, P.235). Several studies found that children with antisocial behaviors later turn into delinquents. They have also found that detecting psychopathology early can stable and…

    • 1229 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics