Families, Delinquency and Crime

Many studies have revealed a close relationship between families and delinquency. This paper looks at two studies done to try and explain this relationship. In the first study done by Shears, Robinson and Ender (2003) called Fathering relationships and their association with juvenile delinquency, data from a group of men was used to explore the relationship between men’s relationship with their fathers, their attachment to their children, self assessment of themselves as fathers and antisocial behaviors. Specific data from men identified as fathers or father figures by women involved in two Early Head Start sites in Denver Colorado were examined to find the association between the experience of being fathered, the building of a positive relationship with his children and participation in antisocial behavior during his youth.

A survey of 87 English and Spanish speaking men who were over 19 years old and who were reported to be mothers partners, step fathers or the biological fathers of young children, two years of age was undertaken. Interviewers contacted the men previously identified by the children’s mothers. Information was gathered by telephone or in person when their children were two years of age. The fathers reported on the general quality of their relationships with their fathers, how they rated themselves as fathers, activities with their children, emotional attachment to their children and their past juvenile delinquent experiences. A measure of quality of fathering was calculated as the average of twelve questions regarding how their fathers treated them while growing up. A mean of positive involvement with their child was calculated as the mean of the frequency of the men engaging in 33 activities with their children. The measure of emotional attachment was calculated as the average of the frequency with which fathers engaged with certain behaviors like carrying their child picture, bragging about their child and how they thought about their children while were away. A Juvenile Crime Index was also administered. Index of antisocial behaviors was calculated as the sum of various antisocial acts ranging from minor to major act.

The study points to very interesting findings. Fathers who had positive relationship with their fathers felt good about themselves being good fathers and their attachment with their child but not their involvement with them. Also not all men who had a poor relationship with their fathers engaged in delinquent acts. Fathers who reported high antisocial activities reported low rating of themselves as fathers and low involvement of themselves with their children. This however did not affect their attachment to their children.

From the study, poor quality of past fathering and antisocial behaviors were significantly correlated. The authors conducted a regression analysis entering these two factors simultaneously. They found that the interaction was not significant for all assessments of current fathering.

This article shows the importance of a man’s past relationship with his father and how it affects how a he feels about himself as a father and his attachment with his child, which is the main focus of this paper. The study did not yield support for the association between the past relationship with ones father and antisocial behavior. It however pointed to an important area of mentoring young boys to prevent delinquency and thus contributing positively to better fathers in the future.

In the second study done by Palmer and Gough (2007), titled Childhood experiences of parenting and casual attributions for criminal behavior among young offenders and non offenders, the authors try to investigate the relationships between perceptions of parenting and the attributions for criminal behaviors in two groups of offenders and non offenders. Data was collected from three groups of people. 40 convicted male young offenders between the age of 18 and 21, out of which 20 had committed crime against property and the other 20 had committed crime against people. In this study, these groups are referred to as property offenders and personal offenders respectively. As parenting was one of the variables, marital status of participants’ parents was also recorded. Government statistics for local areas provided crime rates for participant local areas. The non offenders composed of undergraduate university students. The participants filled a questionnaire comprising of the EMBU (Egna Minnens Barndorms Uppfostran; “ones memories of upbringing”) and casual attributions measures (defective education, mental instability, temptation, excitement, alienation and parents). They were then examined. The authors then performed a series of ANOVAs to compare scores between the three groups. The findings pointed out to home area crime rate, paternal emotional warmth and maternal emotional warmth as being the factors that are mostly associated with high levels of delinquency.

This study had a small sample size that could not be used to come up with a proper conclusion as it was not a proper representation of the population. Crude distinction between property and person offenses could also have affected the results negatively. However the studies have raised some important issues that future research could look into.

References

Shears, J. Robinson. J. & Ender. R. N. (2003). Fathering relationships and their association with juvenile delinquency. American Journal of Psychology, 54(3), 79-87.

Palmer. E. J. Gough, K. (2007). Childhood experiences of parenting and casual attributions for criminal behavior among young offenders and non offenders. Criminology, 10, 790-806.