The first issue states that Keiron had ” “eccentric” behaviour, difficulties forming social relationships, problems communicating with others and the development of strong narrow obsessional interests. ” It states that he had troubles in social situations. This relates to a theory by Eysenck (1964) claimed that personality type led people to commit crimes. The article also assumes that education can be linked to crime. It describes how the education system originally worked with Kieron and his family but “they failed and gave up when he reached 16”.
Loeber and Farrington (1998) researched a link between education and crime and found academic failure is likely to lead to criminal behaviour. The third issue states that Kieron ‘had no friends his own age. ‘ Many studies have been conducted about children and their friends, looking at issues such as gender, age and learning disability status. According to Sullivan (1953), children acquire interpersonal sensitivity, new social skills and behaviours, and receive support in intimate relationships with close friends.
Studies have concluded that children with learning disabilities typically have younger friends and therefore interpersonal skills and other behaviours and ideas are learnt at the same rate as their friends. Evidence and Research Issue one: Eccentric behaviour There is psychological evidence to support the assumption that personality has a link to crime. Eysenck (1964) concluded that criminals had distinct personalities which would react to environmental stimuli. Introverts are typically serious and reserved individuals who prefer solitary activities to people.
They are more cautious and orderly. Another personality type which often interacts with introversion, is neuroticism. Traits such as low self esteem and anxiety are linked to this. This applies to Kieron as he was described as having “eccentric behaviour”. He also “stayed at home watching Big Brother, sci-fi dramas, The Simpsons” Eysenck found that criminals who unexpectedly performed criminal behaviour were more likely to have these personality features, than extroversion, which is linked to fulfilling urges. This is true of Kieron and his crime.
Issue two: Education and crime The second assumption in this article is a link between education and crime. Kieron left school at age 13 and despite the education services continuing to work with his family, they failed and gave up when he turned 16. School is one of the primary institutions in which adolescents learn socially appropriate behaviour and develop cognitive skills. Loeber and Farrington (1998) have shown that academic failure, a low commitment to schooling and dropping out of school have all been shown to be factors effecting criminal behaviour.
Farrington (1998) showed that 20% of boys with poor performance in school were convicted of violent offences as adults. Kieron only received education up to Key Stage 3, therefore Loeber and Farrington’s findings relate to him. Kieron’s lack of education could be the reason why he committed his crime. Issue three: Friends of children with learning disabilities This article states that Kieron’s friends were younger than him. Weiner and Schneider (2002) concluded that children with learning disabilities had more friends with learning problems and fewer friends of the same age.
Friends tended to be younger and of the same sex. Proximity and similar achievement levels are partial explanations for this effect. This applies to Kieron as he did not have friends his own age. He would often “play out” with boys who were younger than himself. This may have been because Kieron felt more comfortable in this situation as he was at the same levels as they were in terms of morality and social skills. Practical interventions Issue one Gale and Eysenck (1991) stated that personality is born to an individual.
A person’s personality type is due entirely to biology. If this is true, preventing personality types, and later crime according to Eysenck (1964) would be difficult, if not impossible. Beck developed Cognitive behaviour therapy, which is a kind of psychotherapy used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, and other forms of mental disorder. It involves recognizing unhelpful patterns of thinking and reacting, then modifying or replacing these with more realistic or helpful ones. This would help in Kieron’s case to change his personality.
However if personality is purely biological this intervention would not be useful as personality could not be changed. Issue two Prison-based education is an effective tool for lowering recidivism. According to the National Institute of Justice Report, prison education is far more effective at reducing delinquency than boot camps or vocational training. In 1997, The Correctional Education Association conducted “The Three State Recidivism Study” for the US Department of Education.
This study educated ex-prisoners and found a reduction in re-offending. Therefore once people have committed a crime, education will prevent the offence reoccurring. Ideally, keeping children in schools is the best solution to the relationship between lack of education and involvement of crime, however, as shown in Kieron’s case, this is not always possible. Issue three There have been two distinctly different approaches to preventing problems in childhood.
The universal approach (Mrazek & Haggerty, 1994) is directed at a total population, typically a school, with the aim of reducing the incidence of disorders in that population. Curriculum-based programs, such as Second Step (Grossman et al. , 1997) and Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (Kusche & Greenberg, 1994), promote the development of social and emotional competence by teaching social problem solving, anger management and emotion self-regulation skills in the classroom. However difficulty arises if these techniques can not be learnt.
Whom children become friends with cannot be controlled, however if a child, such as Kieron, is choosing to become friends with younger children, then social skills and morality levels that are not being learnt from peers, must be learnt from parents or other role models. Bandura (1977) developed the social learning theory which could be applied. When this theory was applied in a natural way to Kieron, he was under-developed compared children his age. If Kieron had been put in set up scenarios for him to learn by watching others and experiencing right and wrong, he would have developed and would have been more able to social situations.
References
Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/text/print.html?in_article_id=371796&in_page_id=1770. Viewed: 10th February
Oliver. K. Psychology in Practice – Crime. Hodder and Stoughton, 2002.
http://www.murderuk.com/psychology/ptoject.htm. Viewed: 15th February 2006
Eysenck, H.J. Learning theory and behavior therapy. Journal of Mental Science, 1959
Loeber R, Farrington D. Serious and violent juvenile offenders: risk factors and successful interventions. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications; 1998.
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/research_digest/friendships.html. Viewed: 15th February 2006
http://www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/186162/page6.html. Viewed: 16th February 2006
http://www.dsgonline.com/mpg2.5/cognitive_behavioral_treatment_prevention.htm. Viewed: 15th February 2006