Psychology Essay A2

How can upbringing in a disrupted family explain criminal behaviour (10marks)

A disrupted family is a family where one (or two) of the spouses is going through relationship problems or are incapable of looking after their children. Some patterns have been made explicit to highlight the link between disrupted families.

D.Farrington conducted a prospective longitudinal study to investigate the development of offending and antisocial behavior from ages 10-50. He used 411 south London males who were aged 8 and 9 from six state primary schools. These boys were interviewed at ages 8,10 and14 in their schools then interviewed again in the research office at ages 16,18 and 21, and then lastly interviewed in their homes at ages 25,32 and 48. In these interviews the south London boys were asked about living circumstances, employment, personal relationships, fighting, drinking, drug use, children, and illness/injuries. These boys were also given various amounts of tests that include intelligence, attainment, personality and impulsivity. The findings were that boys who started their criminal behaviour early (ages 10-13) would carry on through at their lives, so they’ll be known as persisters. In addition to this 75% of convicted parents also had convicted children. This finding shows a direct link between disrupted families and criminal behaviour. This could also be linked to the social learning theory as these children can imitate their parents’ behaviour. Only 4.6% of families accounted for 48% crimes. This suggests that upbringing in a criminal family which could be dysfunctional can lead to criminal behaviour. Farrington’s conclusion was that those who start crime early tend to be the persisters. So these persisters need to be targeted early by organisations such as Sure Start.

Bowlby’s evolutionary theory suggests that the most important relationship is between a child and their mother in the first few years. If there is any disruption the child will suffer...