The Developmental Theories

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Developmental theories are broken up into two perspectives; Life-course, and Latent Trait. These perspectives may answer questions on why juveniles have grown to lead a destructive life-style and why others grow out of their delinquency. Latent trait explains that some tendencies we are may be born with and how important it is to be there for our children. Our parenting skills do have a profound effect on how our children may lack self control or have an impulsive behavior. The life course perspective takes places as we grow and learn more in life. The person’s life can go either way for the better or for the worse. Starting as a child we go through experiences that can have life altering changes in our lives. Sometimes it will lead us into a dramatic change that we may pick crime instead of dealing with the experience. According to the Florida department of education there are two main concepts; trajectories and transitions. “A trajectory is a pathway over the life course, which involves long-term patterns of events, such as employment or family history. A transition, in contrast, involves the short-term events, or turning points, that make up specific life changes, such as marriage, divorce, or parenthood.” (FDE) Laub and Sampson helped identify what can help adult offenders stray away from crime. Trajectories refer to long term patterns and transition refers to short term pattern. Both trajectory and transition can either be positive or negative in ones path in life. Sampson and Laub came up with their own theory under life-course. The age-graded theory, suggests that those individuals who have deviated on life’s path have either broken or weaken their social bonds with society. Sampson and Laub also believe the life of crime ... ... middle of paper ... ...er to building a brighter future for the next generation, but we have to be positive and stop placing our teenagers in the negative category making them feel like they are nothing, or else they will live up to that label. Works Cited Florida Department of Education (2003). Crime in the Life Course. Retrieved from http://criminology.fsu.edu/center/jjeep/pdf/annual2003/chapter7ar03.pdf Moffitt, T. E. (1993). A Developmental Taxonomy. Retrieved from http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/ewaters/552-04/slidsets/brian_mcfarland_aggression/moffitt_aggression.pdf Siegel, L. J. (2000). Criminology. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Treadwell, J. (2006). Developmental Theories. In Criminology (pp. 295-328). London: SAGE. Understanding Criminology Theories | Criminology. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.criminology.com/resources/understanding-criminology-theories/

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