Understanding and Preventing Violence Volume 1 (1993) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 357-403
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 357 A The Development of an Individual Potential for Violence This appendix does not purport to be a state-of-the-art review of individuallevel influences on the development of violent behavior; that would require a book rather than a comparatively short paper. It aims to summarize briefly some of the most important findings and theories, but more especially to identify key issues and questions that are unresolved and to recommend ways of resolving them.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 358 blacks to commit violent offenses might be explained by reference to some of the other factors discussed here. Most of the developmental research on aggression and violence has been carried out with males.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 359 Our preference is for heterogeneity, but in discussing development we usually refer to violence in general. The focus of the panel is on intentional physical assault.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 360 and the commission of repeated and varied types of criminal acts (Hare, 1981)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 361 manifestations of the same construct (like symptoms of an illness) , then preventing or changing an early act in the sequence will not necessarily affect the probability of later acts unless there is some change in the underlying construct.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 362 coefficients for aggression ranging from .36 to .95 (Olweus, 1979)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 363 age (Eron et al., 1983) , the aggressiveness of an individual relative to the rest of the population may remain fairly stable.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 364 factors (Farrington, 1989)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 365 to the central nervous system resulting from these complications. Possible interactions between pregnancy/birth complications and the early rearing environment are of potential importance, since they suggest that a stable early home environment may protect a child from the negative effects of these complications.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 366 rate acceleration during cognitive testing. A global physiological index of arousal made up of eight measures including heart rate, pupil dilation, norepinephrine, cortisol, and vocal tension correlated significantly with inhibition at age 21 months (r = .70)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 367 deficit, tend to be restless and lacking concentration, take risks, show a poor ability to defer gratification, and have low empathy (e.g., Farrington, 1989)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 368 study the effects of different forms of early abuse (defined by court reports) on later crime and violence (Widom, 1989b)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 369 assertiveness (Margolin et al., 1988)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 370 causes aggression, then interventions aimed at improving children's social relations with their peers might lead to reductions in aggressive behavior. Olweus (1991)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 371 Effects of Television Violence Most reviews of the literature (e.g., Heath et al., 1989) conclude that exposure to television violence encourages aggressive behavior by children and adults.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 372 essential to note that the biological changes accompanying puberty are confounded with psychological changes and adjustments in schooling, given the customary switch from elementary to junior high school that occurs around age 13. Early maturation is generally thought to be a disadvantage in girls (e.g., they may be attracted to older males, older males find them attractive)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 373 and crime. Research by Farrington et al.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 374 Very few projects permit the investigation of the occurrence of violent crimes in criminal careers. Generally, self-report studies with general population samples (e.g., Elliott et al., 1989)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 375 criminal careers makes it easier to raise questions than to answer them. The main violent crimes that have been studied are homicide, forcible rape, robbery, and assault.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 376 offenders, and 70 percent of the London violent offenders. However, in the Miller et al.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 377 or property offense, Moffitt et al.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 378 (11) How useful are criminal career concepts such as career length and individual offending frequency as applied to violence?
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 379 Social Learning Theory Bandura (1973) proposed that aggressive behavior is learned and maintained through environmental experiences.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 380 generating potential responses to conflict situations (Richard and Dodge, 1982) and are more likely to select passive and aggressive responses (Dodge, 1986)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 381 produce aggressive children and violent adults?
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 382 Such research has implications for the interaction between influences at the individual level and biological influences. Longitudinal research does not necessarily have to extend from birth to adulthood.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 383 Interventions Prenatal, Perinatal, and Postnatal Health Care The link between prenatal/perinatal complications and later violence suggests that interventions to reduce violence could be targeted on the prenatal/ perinatal period. However, there appear to be no published studies reporting the effects of such early interventions on later violence.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 384 could be included to assess the effects of possible interactions between prenatal and perinatal complications and social variables. Since socioeconomic disadvantage increases the risk of school failure in low-birthweight children, it might be expected that interventions would be most effective in socially disadvantaged families.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 385 by encouraging children to watch television programs that emphasize the prosocial behavior of the characters (Eron, 1986; Eron and Huesmann, 1984)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 386 The facts that the latter population was older and that the study was conducted in an environment in which there were major incentives to reduce antisocial behavior represent contextual factors that may have led to a more successful outcome (Guerra, 1990)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 387 this social skills group showed significant improvements in externalizing behavior problems (including aggression) as rated by teachers relative to a control group on the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist, and these improvements were maintained over a three-month follow-up period.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 388 an "observation" group who received no intervention but who completed questionnaires and took part in observational studies, and a control group. Treatment for the boys consisted of social skills training (e.g., instructions on what to do when angry or when teased)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 389 consequently such programs may warrant inclusion in any future intervention strategy for violence. Parent training programs have been evaluated in hundreds of outcome studies (Kazdin, 1985)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 390 and cognitive styles of black children. Future intervention studies in this area must clearly pay close attention to the issue of race differences both in levels of aggressive behavior and in intervention effectiveness.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 391 Social Relations The notion that social rejection may predispose children to aggression has led to school-based interventions aimed at increasing the quality of children's social relations with their peers.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 392 intervention package might interact to produce a disproportionate effect. An important issue in intervention research is what individual form of treatment is best able to alter aggressive behavior in children.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 393 the former group. Three intervention programs cited by Dodge (1991)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 394 Attention should also be paid to intervening with those children who possess multiple predisposing factors for later aggression and violence. For example, one intervention that may be of value consists of studying children ages 4-5 with uninhibited (fearless)
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 395 Bandura, A 1973 Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 396 aggression in children's peer groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 53:1146-1158.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 397 1990 Age, period, cohort, and offending.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 398 Hare, R.D. 1978 Electrodermal and cardiovascular correlates of psychopathy.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 399 1989 Temperamental contributions to social behavior. American Psychologist 44:668-674.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 400 1987 Aggression and shyness as predictors of problems. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 401 in adolescent boys: A causal analysis. Developmental Psychology 16:644-660.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 402 Robins, L.N. 1991 Antisocial personality.
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE 403 Wadsworth, M.E.J. 1976 Delinquency, pulse rate and early emotional deprivation.
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