Criminal Psychology: A Child's Mind

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Recommended: Nature nurtures criminal behavior

Thesis Statement:
In this paper, the depths of a child’s impressionable mind will be explored. It will include discussion and possible explanations for why children have criminal or deviant mindsets, popular traits and characteristics of children who will likely succumb to criminal behavior later in their lives, and the crimes children already may commit as well as how this behavior escalates.

Introduction
Children, no doubt, have some of the most innocent and accepting minds and personalities on the planet. However, they can also have the most sinister. An important factor of criminal psychology is dissecting where criminal patterns, behaviors, and thoughts originate. By tracing deviant behaviors back to where they begin, psychologists can identify popular causes and similarities in criminal backgrounds. The experiences adolescents have in their childhood, as well as biological factors, can significantly shape a child’s future psyche.

The History of Criminal Psychology Relating to Children
Criminal psychology is the study of criminal patterns and behaviors and why criminals act the way they do. Though children are portrayed as a picture of innocence, there are many cases of violence revolving around adolescents. What causes a child to perform such acts, despite known consequences? The debate has been a heated one for centuries. Some believe that for a child to act in such a manor, they must have a biological deficiency. However, it is argued that any child can become a cold-blooded killer, given the right triggers, and that deviousness in children is a result of how the children are brought up and raised, not their biological makeup.
Both sides of the argument have very strong and key points, but in the end ...

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... Buller, & McGinnis, 2009)

MacDonald Homicidal Triad diagram (1963)

The following are also factors of conduct disorder- “a repetitive and persistent pattern of behaviour in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate societal norms or rules are violated" (DSM-IV-TR, American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000)- that risk violence at a later age; aggression to people and/or animals, destruction of property (arson, vandalism), deceitfulness and/or theft, and serious violation of rules (Wilson & Norris, 2003).
Other behavioral characteristics of future deviance or criminal behavior consists of not only physical evidence, but also mental. “Callous-unemotional (CU) traits (e.g., lack of empathy, deficient guilt/remorse, and shallow affect) are a circumscribed facet of the adult psychopathic personality,” (Kahn RE, Byrd AL, & Pardini DA, 2013).

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