Child Abuse, Violence And Family Neglect: Article Analysis

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The title of the article I read was “Childhood marred by abuse, violence and family neglect”, written by Verity Edwards. The article began with a graphic photo of a male strapped in a chair in what looked like a prison. Also, what looked like a bag was placed over his head, with strings attached to it that look like they were meant to be tightened so that he could not breathe. The article goes on to explain who was in the chair, which is an 18-year-old boy named Dylan Voller. From the details of the article, it seems like he was put in the chair in that way because of his “anger management problems”, “bad behavior”, and/or because he spit at people when he was upset with them. Also, he is in prison because he targeted and attacked a police …show more content…

Based off of this module, Dylan’s criminal behavior could be explained by Bandura’s social learning theory. Dylan is imitating and modeling the behavior that he was so fond of as a child living in an environment of family violence and abuse. Furthermore, the article states that he was “placed under the guardianship of the state when he was 11” and also that he “was lavished with weekends spent in hotels, at bowling alleys and at movie theatres” (Edwards, 2016). Other very important statements that followed were that he “was being rewarded for his bad behavior”, as “he knew the carers didn’t care and knew they’d give him all this free stuff for being naughty” (Edwards, 2016). After reading the article, it seems like both Bandura and Skinner’s theories apply to Dylan’s behavior. Dylan both witnessed (which is indirect) and experienced violence directly. With Skinner’s concept of operant conditioning, Dylan’s bad behavior was reinforced by the lavish weekends described. As such, he wasn’t receiving punishment for his bad behavior throughout his childhood, so violence and aggression was probably the most relevant model he knew how to imitate, as it was being reinforced as well. Dylan lacked guidance and lacked

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