Behavioral theory states that people act aggressively because, as children, they modeled their behavior after the violent acts of adults. When they get older, they become antisocial. As a child when they were awarded for doing things, they thought it was good and it became habitual and the behavior that is punished becomes extinguished. A sub branch of behavioral theory is social learning theory. They act violently when people pick on them, threaten them, or they are exposed to direct pain.
Individuals who are exposed to these traits influence the social environment. It is said that individual traits and social environment work together to influence crime and may vary among individuals. Some of the traits may include low intelligence, irritability, low reserve, and a lack of sympathy for others. These traits are genetically based and play an important role in explaining why individuals start offending at an early age. It is said that individuals who have these traits may have parents with the same traits.
It does however explain why some people or actions are described as deviant, and can help in understanding crime and deviance. According to item A labelling has changed the theoretical base for the study of criminals. Becker emphasises the significance of crime being a social construct; an action only becomes criminal or deviant once society has labelled it so, and that crime can be argued to be a social construction. He introduced the concept of a master label, referring to the label which a person is given which overrides all other labels. When a person is labelled as negatively, society tends to tend them as such, and this master label often becomes internalised, and then a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs.
In other cases some criminals are born with the lack of humility, which is the ability to put yourself in the situation of the person who you are doing harm to. These people are considered sociopaths. Another theory called the rational choice theory states that everyone has their own thoughts and emotions for which they commit their crimes weather to improve their living standards or to avoid hardships. Intelligence can play a huge role in the mind of a criminal; this is considered the nature theory. A person who does not know any better is much more likely to commit a crime then a well educated person, although this
The stresses of wants and needs can be intensified by a society that is materialistic. Also, social changes can create anxiety and disillusionment for adolescents causing them to commit delinquent acts. Clearly, people have a tendency to mature in different stages until adulthood. When a juvenile does something wrong, they are then considered to be juvenile delinquent. All juvenile delinquent behaviors are influenced not only by the environment in which juveniles live, but also by what they observe in adults.
Others may find the individual's behaviour unusual, or erratic and may find it difficult to be around them. The individual may feel hurt, insecure, lack self-esteem and become depressed and isolated. Anxiety disorders – is an unrealistic and constant worry about aspects of everyday life. The individual may experience sleep disturbance. They may be restless or agitated, their hearts may beat faster, they may get the shakes and stomach upset.
Most children imitate what they see a person do or say so if someone is doing something bad they will most likely copy that as well. Observational learning, social learning theory focuses on behavior modeling, in which the child observes and then imitates the behavior of adults or other children around him or her (Wiesner, Capaldi, Patterson,2003, p.318). Social learning is one cause of juvenile delinquent behavior because; juveniles who are easily persuaded are most likely to imitate everything they can see. A good example is the violence that is portrayed on television it can have a huge negative impact on the behavior of some children. The next reason why juveniles commit delinquent acts is child abuse.
People with antisocial disorder will act instead of feel; they find it difficult to talk about their personal emotional experiences. The feelings of helpless and a scared victim during childhood stage makes them want to scare and victimize others when they grow up (Hansel & Damour, 2008). Furthermore, the psychodynamic aspect also delves into analyzing early childhood attachments of individuals with antisocial personality disorder. Gabbard (2000) stated that “normal parent-child attachment paves the way for the internalization of a morally guiding superego and the ability to empathize with others. People with antisocial personality disorder show abnormal superego functioning and a lack of empathic ability to imagine how others feel, presumably due to disrupted parent-child relationships” (Hansel & Damour, 2008, p.
Underreporting occurs due to individuals being dishonest regarding their behavior, therefore causing an error in the research done. A possible solution to this limitation is focusing on observed behavior, and correlating the findings with the self-reporting behavior, therefore developing a conclusion that is more in-depth. Furthermore, Article 2 emphasized that other factors can influence self-labeling as a victim in relation to work-place bullying, not just anxiety and anger. In addition, discovering a moderation effect regarding negative acts of violence and self-labeling is hard to discover due to the psychological way an individual may experience an event. Lastly, Article 3 honed on the lack of variances of deviant behavior.
Antisocial behavior and aggression has been shown to link back to the rejection of those around you as a young child. It is believed that peer rejection at a young age is the cause of later stress while also affecting the development in that child. “It is hypothesized that, as a provocation stimulus, peer social rejection will lead children to respond with increased reactive and proactive aggressive behavior,” (Dodge & Coie, 2987). This quote narrows the article down to one main subject; that subject being the aggression caused in a child caused by rejection from peers or others around them. Not only does social rejection cause stress and aggression in a young child, it results in stress among the family due to the child’s behavioral changes.