2. What creates a criminal?
Introduction: We will be focusing on the childhood of a criminal.
The study "Preventing at-risk children from developing
antisocial and criminal behaviour: a longitudinal study examining
the role of parenting, community, and societal factors in middle
childhood" discusses various variables that may play a role in a
child's development of criminal behavior.
(Stevens, 2018)
As seen in the source, it talks about how many different factors
affect a child’s actions that would also lead to the child’s future
criminal behavior. These factors could be family difficulties
while growing up or parental abuse.
(Stevens, 2018)
3. #System analysis
Micro system level:
Family environment: Families
influence a criminal’s childhood
and eventually leads the criminals
to commit crimes when growing
up. “a severely dysfunctional
family can influence antisocial or
criminal behavior. Known risk
factors are poverty, parenting
practices, and the structure of the
family.”
(How Can Early Environments
Influence Future Criminal
Behavior? - Godoy Medical
Forensics, 2022)
Mesosystem Level:
Interactions between different agents:
Interactions between different agents influence
the behavior of a child significantally and could
potentially lead to creating a future criminal.
These interactions involve a lack of coordination
between family and the education agents not
monitoring a childs behavior in school. This lack
of monitoration could lead to creating a criminal.
An example would be a child not attending
school. This would lead the child to miss out on
school hours and eventually not care about their
future. “the work of various economists strongly
suggests that, in the aggregate, attending school
longer and obtaining educational credentials
reduce criminal behavior.” (Bell et al. 2016)
Macrosystem Level:
Support systems:
Support systems influence the act of a
child significantly. Mental health care is
one. The environment a child lives in
should encourage seeking professional
help but here in the UAE some people do
not trust therapists. Lack of access to
these services like mental health centres
would impact a child’s development
“Nearly 1 in 5 children have a mental,
emotional, or behavioral disorder1, such
as anxiety or depression, attention-
deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),
autism spectrum disorder (ASD),
disruptive behavior disorder, or
Tourette syndrome. Children with these
disorders benefit from early diagnosis
and treatment.”
(Improving Access to Children’s Mental
Health Care | CDC, 2022)
4. #Behavior Explanation
In a study called Adverse
Childhood Experiences and
Crime, it talks about how
different experiences such as
abuse, neglect, and household
problems can also be known as
predictors of future criminal
behavior. Those type of
behaviors can lead to also
health problems usage of
drugs or miuse of prescribed
medications to engage in
criminal behavior.
(Adverse Childhood
Experiences and Crime, 2019)
To dig deeper into behavior explanation
about we should also consider the
physiolgical impacts a child has and
how it can alter a child’s brain growth.
In example the child can’t control his
actions or ruin a child’s decsion making
ability. Children from families with low
incomes may experience additional
pressures, such as the desire for a
better life or acceptance in bad social
circles that push them to engage in
criminal activity. (Adverse Childhood
Experiences and Crime, 2019)
5. #Utility
Benefits at the individual level: Quick money gain and elevated standing
in some communities.
Social Level benefits: Crime can increase community cooperation and
alertness, strengthen community resilience, and create neighborhood-
based safety and crime prevention initiatives.
System benefits: include maintaining law and order and having a
deterrent effect on potential offenders.
Costs at the individual level: Potential injury during criminal activity,
legal issues, and the possibility of incarceration.
Social Level Costs: Raising security and law enforcement costs could
hinder economic expansion.
System Costs: A major financial strain on the criminal justice system, as
well as overcrowded prisons that make rehabilitation difficult.
(Apel & Nagin, 2015)
6. #Purpose
To truly understand criminals, we
have to take a look and analyze why
these criminals act the way they are.
What are the motives? What is the
purpose behind these acts? There are
basics needs to survive. Some
criminals if we look back to their
childhood we’d figure out that the
criminals may have been living in
tough living conditions. This makes
them see the world dofferently. Some
criminals need food due to poverty or
homelessness.
Individuals experiencing homelessness are up to 11.3
times more likely to be arrested and face challenges
within the legal system, such as difficulties in receiving
court date notifications, exclusion from pretrial
diversion programs due to lack of housing or
employment, and challenges in complying with standard
conditions of probation.
(Martell et al., 1995)
7. #EvidenceBased
Apel, R., & Nagin, D. S. (2015, January 1). Deterrent Effect of Police and
Prisons. Elsevier eBooks. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.86021-3
Stevens, M. (2018, August 10). Preventing at-risk children from developing
antisocial and criminal behaviour: a longitudinal study examining the role
of parenting, community and societal factors in middle childhood. BMC
Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-018-0254-z
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Crime. (2019, April 9). FBI: Law
Enforcement Bulletin. https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/adverse-
childhood-experiences-and-crime
Martell, D. A., Rosner, R., & Harmon, R. B. (1995,
June 1). Base-rate estimates of criminal
behavior by homeless mentally ill persons in
New York City. Psychiatric Services.
https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.46.6.596
Improving Access to Children’s Mental Health
Care | CDC. (2022, November 28). Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/acc
ess.html
How Can Early Environments Influence Future
Criminal Behavior? - Godoy Medical Forensics.
(2022, April 20). Godoy Medical Forensics.
https://godoymedical.net/how-can-early-
environments-influence-future-criminal-
behavior/
