Broken Family
FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS, JUVENILE DELINQUENCY, AND ADULT CRIMINALITY*
JOAN McCORD Temple University
Home observations during childhood and criminal records 30 years later are used to address questions of relative impact among features of child rearing influencing male criminal outcomes The results suggest two mechanisms: Maternal behavior appears to influence juvenile delinquency and, through those effects, adult criminality. Paternal interaction with the family, however. appear to have a more direct influence on the probability of adult criminal behavior.
THEORETICAL
PERSPECTIVE
Historically, family interactions have been assumed to influence criminal behavior. Plato, for example, prescribed a regimen for rearing good citizens in the nursery. Aristotle asserted that in order to be virtuous, “we ought to have been brought up in a particular way from our very youth” (Bk.II, Ch. 3:11048). And John Locke wrote his letters on the education of children in the belief that errors “carry their afterwards-incorrigible taint with them, through all the parts and stations of life” (1693:iv). Twentieth century theorists ranging from the analytic to the behavioral seem to concur with the earlier thinkers in assuming that parental care is critical to socialized behavior. Theorists have suggested that inadequate families fail to provide the attachments that could leverage children into socialized life-styles (e.g., Hirschi, 1969). They note that poor home environments provide a backdrop for children to associate differentially with those who have antisocial definitions of their environments (e.g., Sutherland and Cressey, 1974). And they point out that one feature of inadequate child rearing is l This study was partly supported by U.S. Public Health Service Research Grant MH26779. I thank Richard Parente, Robert Staib, Ellen Myers, and Ann Cronin for tracing the men and their records; Joan Immel, Tom Smedile, Harriet Sayre, Mary Duell, Elise Goldman, Abby Brodkin, and
JOAN McCORD Temple University
Home observations during childhood and criminal records 30 years later are used to address questions of relative impact among features of child rearing influencing male criminal outcomes The results suggest two mechanisms: Maternal behavior appears to influence juvenile delinquency and, through those effects, adult criminality. Paternal interaction with the family, however. appear to have a more direct influence on the probability of adult criminal behavior.
THEORETICAL
PERSPECTIVE
Historically, family interactions have been assumed to influence criminal behavior. Plato, for example, prescribed a regimen for rearing good citizens in the nursery. Aristotle asserted that in order to be virtuous, “we ought to have been brought up in a particular way from our very youth” (Bk.II, Ch. 3:11048). And John Locke wrote his letters on the education of children in the belief that errors “carry their afterwards-incorrigible taint with them, through all the parts and stations of life” (1693:iv). Twentieth century theorists ranging from the analytic to the behavioral seem to concur with the earlier thinkers in assuming that parental care is critical to socialized behavior. Theorists have suggested that inadequate families fail to provide the attachments that could leverage children into socialized life-styles (e.g., Hirschi, 1969). They note that poor home environments provide a backdrop for children to associate differentially with those who have antisocial definitions of their environments (e.g., Sutherland and Cressey, 1974). And they point out that one feature of inadequate child rearing is l This study was partly supported by U.S. Public Health Service Research Grant MH26779. I thank Richard Parente, Robert Staib, Ellen Myers, and Ann Cronin for tracing the men and their records; Joan Immel, Tom Smedile, Harriet Sayre, Mary Duell, Elise Goldman, Abby Brodkin, and
References: Akers, R.L. 1913 Deviant Behavior: A Social Learning Approach. Belmont, Calif.: Wad- sworth.