Читать книгу The Invisible Woman - Joanne Belknap - Страница 54

Sampson and Laub’s (1993) construction of LCT drew significantly from Hirschi’s (1969) social control theory (SCT), Gottfredson and Hirschi’s (1990) general theory of crime (GTC), and C. Taylor’s (2001) self-control theory. LCT theorizes that various life events, particularly those during childhood and adolescence, affect one’s risk of offending behavior. Thus, various developmental stages are “age specific,” making offending behavior associated with age (see Loeber, 1996). Indeed, adolescence is identified as a particularly at-risk time given the angst of puberty, the stress of schools (including changing schools), and peer pressure.

In this sense, crime is viewed as a network of various causal factors. One aspect of LCT is that independent variables become dependent variables over time. For example, delinquency decreases one’s chance of doing well in school, which in turn becomes a predictor for (re)turning to crime. Some of the key variables assessed in much of the life course research include antisocial behavior, intelligence, and income levels, as well as general criminal, delinquent, and deviant behaviors. Thus, a focus of some life course research is to assess whether antisocial behavior is continuous over an individual’s life (“life course persistent”) or whether there are periods of antisocial behaviors, usually limited to adolescence (“adolescence limited”) (Moffitt, 1993). The life course approach, then, examines “pathways through the age-differentiated life span,” acknowledging different life stages, turning points, and transitions in individuals’ lives (Elder, 1985). Therefore, this LCT research is longitudinal in nature (collecting data about individuals’ lives over time). (Remember to refer to Table 3.2 for a summary and comparison of CVT, LCT, and PT). LCT, then, is a developmental perspective, focusing on individuals’ behavioral changes from birth until death, the “social development over the full life course; specifically, developmental processes from childhood and adolescence through adulthood” (Laub & Lauritsen, 1993, p. 236).

Over the course of most individuals’ lives, the formal and informal social controls vary, particularly the informal controls such as the family, school, and work, and these changes are largely age specific (Laub & Lauritsen, 1993). That is, most children do not have jobs, so we cannot examine that control for them, but their schools and parents typically have less control over them as they age, while they are usually increasingly influenced by their peers. In their work with the LCT model, Sampson and Laub (1990) identify two hypotheses: (1) Childhood antisocial behaviors predict problems in adult development, and (2) social bonds to work and family in adulthood explain changes in crime and development over the life span. They also identify two central concepts to the LCT: trajectories and transitions. Trajectories have to do with life’s “pathways” or development lines over the life span, including a person’s work life, marriage, parenthood, self-esteem, and criminal behavior. Transitions, on the other hand, are “specific life events that are embedded in trajectories and evolve over shorter time spans (e.g., first job or first marriage)” (p. 610). Sampson and Laub view one’s social bonds in adulthood as potentially modifying events on the trajectory to criminal behavior. That is, stable and supportive social bonds (through attachment to a spouse, job stability, and commitment to occupational goals) in adulthood may ameliorate childhood experiences that might otherwise set one on the path to crime.