Family and Education

615 Words3 Pages
Both Primary socialisation and secondary socialisation can help towards explaining criminality. Primary socialisation usually takes place in the family and is considered the most critical stage of socialisation. The family is considered a social institution and is responsible for child rearing and based on kinship, which are social bonds. The most common family type is the nuclear family, but family patterns have dramatically changed. It is seen that ‘fewer people are now choosing to marry, and those that do are marrying later.’ (Allen, 1999, p. 227) Re-marriage and step-families are now as common, along with cohabiting families. Secondary socialisation generally takes place in the school environment and usually takes place as the child grows. Socialisation is seen as a long-term process and is determined by social-interaction with others. Primary socialisation usually takes place in the family, which main function is child rearing. The child is fully dependant on those around them, it the most important. This period of time is when a child will learn societal morals such as, what is right from wrong and what is acceptable in society. There are many factors within the family that can help predict possible criminal behaviour. Factors such as previous convictions within family members, low socioeconomic status, material deprivation, environmental factors and psychological factors. Other factors such as broken homes, lone-parents, and abusive parents are also strongly seen as predictors. Criminal parents tend to lead to criminal children; the Cambridge study in delinquent development is the main example of research into this. Farrington (2003, pp. 137-183) argued that ‘family criminality, daring or risk-taking, low school attainment, poverty and poor parenting’ (Farrington, 2003, pp. 137-183) was all important childhood risk factors for later offending. Linked
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