1.0. INTRODUCTION Antisocial behaviour is defined as behaviours that violates the social norm and disrupt the quality of life of an individual, family and the community. It encompasses any behaviour that causes alarm or distress to another. Antisocial behaviours can be intentional or through negligence and are characterized by overt or covert hostility or often aggression towards others. Hanrahan (n.d.) noted that such behaviours “exist along a severity continuum and include repeated violations of social rules, defiance of authority and of the rights of others, deceitfulness, theft, and reckless disregard for self and others”. Overt behaviour involves aggressive acts like physically abusing others by hitting or throwing things at them. Covert behaviour on the other hand, involves aggression against property like vandalism, theft, graffiti drawing in public areas and fire setting. Anti-social behaviours in young children however can manifest in form of non-compliance, lying or sneaking around. Individuals who exhibit too much of antisocial behaviour usually find difficulty in seeing someone else’s point of view. Nonetheless, anti-social behaviour doesn’t imply the absence of pro-social behaviour. From the Social Learning Theory (SLT) perspective, antisocial behaviours are learnt through imitation of such behaviours from one’s environment. The three core concepts explaining this are observation, internal mental states and the fact that learning doesn’t necessarily lead to behavioural change. For instance, a person who observes a peer drawing graffiti at the bus stand (observation) might think that it is as a fine expression or consider it as defacing of public property. If he internalizes the former, he will only mimic the beha... ... middle of paper ... ...tions and solve problems. Criminogenic home environment is the primary cause of life-course antisocial that produce many criminals. Any antisocial behaviour learnt during childhood that has been reinforced is cumulative. It makes adolescents more vulnerable to reinforcement of such behaviour as they now have more to gain. The adolescence limited though, is a less harmful antisocial behaviour type that if successfully managed can make the adolescence emotionally stronger and less vulnerable to antisocial modelling. The familial environment is arguably the most essential factor in the prevention and treatment of antisocial behaviours. This is because it is the main contributor in the development and worsening of antisocial behaviours. Next is the school environment where adolescents spend most time at, after their home. Lastly, the government needs to take measures.
According to Differential Association, criminal behavior is learned based on the interactions we have with others and the values that we receive during that interaction.
Antisocial Personality Disorder is a personality disorder that is said that one out of every twenty five people in America have, commonly called sociopaths these people are characterized by disregard for social norms and callous unconcern for the feelings of others. These people fall in the two extremes of American society, either the scoundrels and the unsuccessful, or the powerful and affluent individuals, but they rarely fall into the “hard working” or middle-class section of society.
Giller, Henri, Ann Hagell, and Michael Rutter. Antisocial Behavior By Young People. New York: Cambridge UP, 1998.
The main cause of antisocial personality disorder is unknown. However, genetic factors and environmental factors are both believed to be linked to antisocial personality disorder. Environmental factors include being a victim to child abuse or a dysfunctional family life. “People with an antisocial or alcoholic parent are at increased risk”:(“Antisocial Personality Disorder Symptoms,” 2013). On the other hand, research suggests that genetics could also be a factor. When abnormalities development in the nervous system, this leads to learning disorders, hyperactivity, and bedwetting which in turn leads to antisocial personality disorder.:(“Antisocial Personality Disorder Symptoms,” 2013). Not only are the causes unclear, but also because they are unclear exams and tests are given to determine if one has the disorder or not. “Antisocial personality disorder is diagnosed based on a psychological evaluation that assesses the history and severity of symptoms. To be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, a person must have had conduct d...
Before proceeding on what antisocial personality disorder is, along with its debatable biological causes, it is important to understand the criteria for a personality disorder. According to the manual used to diagnose psychological disorders, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, describes personality disorders are ongoing mental illnesses that continue to dramatically affect an individuals’ life. The disorder involves feelings, i...
Through Social Learning Theory, an individual can be studied based on the behavior acquired by a role model. Verbal conditioning procedures and observation influences the response to an individual’s personality. Environment factors contribute to the Social Learning Theory. Antisocial model is a major contribute to crime, which influences negative characteristics. The Social Leaning Theory has three core social concepts the must be followed: observational learning, intrinsic reinforcement and modeling process.
Throughout my life I have experienced issues with being antisocial but not in the most obvious way. In the way where I could converse with and befriend others, my issues were I tend to be antisocial when it comes to friendship and being in groups of people. I always find myself to be straying off. To this day I still cannot perceive why. It is highly sensible to say I endure complications when it comes to feeling included. This is due to my anxiety disorder. Growing up I was overly self-conscious. Over time this small issue goes out of hand, thus passing to my mother taking me to a doctor who then recommended me to a sort life coach, you could call her a therapist but that’s not quite what she is. In the darkness of that phase of my life
In my personal opinion, youths should have very strong parental supervision from a young age, be monitored closely, and to be taught basic moral rules early on to prevent corruption and avoidance of crime only because of inconvenience. Otherwise, offending young youths should be provided with second chances and programs to change their ways and direct them to the correct path. In conclusion, I think that avoiding the interaction of offending youths and other youths could be important in avoiding the spread of crime, but a way must be found in order not to make the offending youths alienated.
Conduct disorder (CD) in children and adolescence is a serious matter that has major adverse effects to the child, to their parents, and to their entire community. This disorder is chronic and worsens overtime that forces the child into a life of risky aggressive impulses, pattern of destructive behavior, disregard for rules, regulation, and authority. Since CD is a condition that develops over a long period of time, children can carry the side effects of negative behaviors into their adulthood. CD is one of the most common diagnosed disorder among children and adolescence, and according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Mental health integration, 2009), “Conduct Disorder s repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate societal norms or rules are violated” (Mental health integration, 2009). At a young age, children with CD will have difficulties in school; learning, forming friendships, and become socially rejected by their peers. By the time the child is an adolescent, CD can stem into many other undesired mental concerns and disorders. An adolescent with CD will likely have numerous run-ins with the law, difficulties forming and maintaining relationships, and difficulty sustaining long-term employment. Some symptoms of CD is bulling, fighting, cruelty to people or animals, rape, vandalism, fire-setting, robbery, theft, and school truancy (Mental health integration, 2009). It is important to note that the average child and adolescent may act on one or two of the symptoms, and that is completely normal. It starts to become a concern when these symptoms are constant and repetitive.
Concerns have been raised that the diagnosis may at times be misapplied to individuals in settings in which seemingly antisocial behavour may be part of a protective survival strategy. In assessing antisocial traits, it is helpful for the clinician to consider the social and economic context in which the behaviour
Families serve as one of the strongest socializing forces in a person's life. They help teach children to control unacceptable behavior, to delay gratification, and to respect the rights of others. Conversely, families can also teach children aggressive, antisocial, and violent behavior. In adults' lives, family responsibilities may provide an important stabilizing force. Given these possibilities, family life may directly contribute to the development of delinquent and criminal tendencies. Parental conflict and child abuse correlate with delinquency. Though not all children who grow up in conflictive or violent homes become delinquent, however, being exposed to conflict and violence appears to increase the risk of delinquency. At this point, researchers have not pin pointed what factors exactly push some at-risk youth into delinquency. A child with criminal parents faces a greater likelihood of becoming a delinquent than children with law-abiding parents. However, the influence appears not to be directly related to criminality but possibly to poor supervision.
Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) is one of the ten personality disorders mentioned in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Personality disorders are long-lasting patterns of maladaptive behavior that deviate from cultural norms. These maladaptive behaviors have an impact on a person’s cognition, affect, interpersonal functioning and impulse control. In the DSM personality disorders are divided into three clusters A, B and C and ASPD belongs to cluster B. People with this disorder are among the most dramatic of the individuals and are characterized by a long-standing pattern of a disregard for other people’s rights, often crossing the line and violating those rights (Firestone et al., 2010).It is important to note that Antisocial Personality Disorder is often referred to as psychopathy or sociopathy in popular culture. However, neither psychopathy nor sociopathy are recognized professional labels used for diagnosis and ASPD and psychopathy are considered two are distinct disorders(Gurley, 2009). Since people diagnosed with ASPD can cause a great deal of harm to society there is a tremendous amount of interest in studying this group and because of this interest and many years of research we know a great deal more about ASPD than about any other personality disorder (Durand et al., 2008).
The social environment of teens holds an enormous influence on how the teens act and behave. Teens are easily influenced by their surroundings and they look to others for guidance. Their behavior results from that of the parent and peer influences. Parents play a particularly influential role in their child’s life and it is up to them to make sure that they are leading their sons or daughters in the right directions. A teen’s peers also play a large role in how the teen behaves when the parents are not around. A teen’s social environment, consisting of family and peers, plays a vital role in their life, therefore becoming the ultimate cause of juvenile delinquency.
There is no one certain theory, regarding juvenile delinquency, that can completely distinguish all the determining factors that makes youth turn to crime; although, the study of all these theories and ideas can bring criminologist one step closer to uncovering the truth about juvenile delinquency. Only the further understanding of juvenile delinquency can help the prevention of future juvenile offenders. This paper will focus on the individual factors of delinquency, as well as the social elements, and provide an explanation of how the combination of the two elements may cause children to engage in criminal activity.
Behavior and social learning are two theories that are inherently intertwined. Behavior to some extent is taught for social reasons, and social learning can very much shape and create behaviors. While behavior is something intentionally taught, social learning can teach and reinforce many unintentional behaviors, such as dishonesty or aggression. In order to adequately discuss these two interrelated topics, theory exploration is in order.