Study of 44 Juvenile Thieves

Study of 44 Juvenile Thieves

Aim:

Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis. To find out if children were

deprived of their mother during the critical period of attachment of

the first few years of their lives, could a serious range of permanent

consequences happen for later development?

Procedure:

Conducted research with 88 clients from the child guidance clinic.

Forty-four children had been referred to the clinic because of

stealing. Bowlby interviewed children and their parents building up a

record of their early life experiences.

Findings:

He found that a large number, 86% of those thieves diagnosed as

'affectionless psychopaths' had experienced early and prolonged

separations from their mothers, whereas very few of the

non-psychopathic thieves or the other children had experienced such

separations.

Conclusion:

Early separations may well be related to later emotional

maladjustment.

Bowbly identified some of these children as ' affectionless

psychopaths' because they appeared to have little sense of social

responsibility and showed no guilt for crimes. Other children referred

to the clinic had not committed any crimes, they were emotionally

maladjusted, but did not show any ant social behaviour.

Criticisms:

· Data on separation was collected retrospectively and may not be

reliable

· The evidence is correctional, which means that we can only say that

separation and affectionless psychopaths are linked, not that one

caused the other.

· Some of the children had actually been separated for rather short

periods and it is difficult to see how they might be the cause of such

a serious condition.

Study of the effects of institutional care - Tizard and Hodge's (1989)

Aim:

To find out what the long-term effects of early institutionalisation

are.

Procedure:

65 children placed in an institutionbefore the age of four months.

There was an explicit policy in the institution against caretakers

forming attachments with the children. Some of the children remained

in institution, some were adopted and other returned to their natural