Families, delinquency, and crime

Families Delinquency and Crime

This brief article will profile the exhibited antisocial behavior of a 14-year-old male, Justin. Justin's behavior has been troubling to family and friends since he was two years old, when he refused to vocalize and required intervention that involved speech therapy. Prior to this time Justin had to have surgical intervention to help correct a genetic abnormality of the eyes called Ptosis, which he was born with, that entails the absence, in his case of all musculature surrounding the eyelids in both eyes. His case was actually more severe than usual, as all musculature was absent and it affected both eyes. Justin's vision has therefore been impaired due to complications of the disorder. His first surgery occurred at six months, second at two years and third at five years. Justin, as a child was excessively moody and needy of constant physical and social stimulation, though he was difficult to engage and rarely acted appropriately for the situation. He was fundamentally rejected by his father, openly, and as a result of his genetic condition, which altered his appearance considerably, though not profoundly so people were constantly asking if he was sleepy, about to go to sleep or if he just woke up from a nap. His behavior was never quite right but has gotten progressively more aggressive and anti-social since birth.

Justin's anti-social behaviors have increased in number and severity, beginning with self-harm at a young age, by biting himself on the arm as well as frequent and persistent fit throwing, and the destruction of his own and his family's property. Doors, walls, toys, electronic equipment, kitchen ware, and carpets have all been damaged or destroyed by Justin in fits of rage of over the years. Additionally he is and has always been resistant to going to bed at night and waking up in the morning on time for school and/or other activities, which has been exacerbated by puberty and a desire to both be alone and be accepted by peers and others (conflicting). He has the desire to have friends and to be around his family but also has a persistent and reinforced fear of rejection that drives many of his thoughts and actions.

A the children on the high antisocial path had very high probabilities of peer rejection over time, indexing their poor relations with normative peers. These children had the highest levels of self-reported aggressive and delinquent behavior at age 11 years. It was concluded that children who develop on a high antisocial behavior path are embedded in a social context that further increases their risk status. The high levels of peer rejection deprive them of positive connections and opportunities for practicing prosocial behavior with nondeviant peers. Instead, they are exposed to the learning, practicing, and reinforcement of deviant behavior through the affiliation with similarly diverging antisocial peers. These processes may well explain their diverging levels of antisocial behavior across time. (Van Lier, Vuijk & Crijnen, 2005, p. 521)

Justin's most recent anti-social behaviors include, rejection and disdain for his teacher and he assignments, culminating in ignoring or procrastinating work and having daily conflict with peers and teachers over his work. Shoplifting, as a result of peer pressure, given that his friends frequently engage in such petty crime and though he is legally blind and therefore unaware of the surveillance systems in stores engaged in shoplifting and was taken into custody by officers and remanded to juvenile hall. This is his second known bout with the law. In the first he entered the home of his father, while his father was on vacation and preceded to trash the inside of the home, with a friend. Most of the damage was caused by rough play and food waste, but his father and second wife felt violated and therefore reported the incident to police. He has been expelled from three school since he began his education and is currently attending junior high school after last attending a small charter school in his community. The shoplifting incident also caused his mother to ask his father to take him back into his home, he has lived with mostly his mother with infrequent visitation from his father, except for a year period where he lived with his father and stepmother and their other children, which ended at age 12 when he tried to vocalize feelings of concern about puberty to his stepmother and she perceived the conversation as deviant and asked that he be returned to his mother.

Justin's anti-social behavior began at birth but has had periods of extremes, beginning with near constant conflict with his mother over mundane requests as well as other general rejections of authority, including an incident of extreme foul language focused at a school bus driver when he was two years old and in transit to speech therapy. Though the child usually refused to speak he still had the ability to call a bus driver an extremely foul name, language he learned from his father and the music his father listens to. His behaviors are frequently extreme at home but have also occurred in public and seem to exacerbate with age and exposure to other anti-social peers and adults, a consistent similarity with other anti-social children and adults. (Loeber, Farrington, Stouthamer-Loeber & Van Kammen, 1998, p. 17)