Crime: Human Agency And Adulthood Essay Example

There are many factors that influence offending throughout an individual’s life. There is no doubt that children who are brought up in crime laden neighborhoods and violent households have a higher likelihood of becoming offenders. However, there are various factors that can take place in one’s life that could curb this behavior. Unfortunately, there are some incidences where such behavior tends to persist. According to Laub and Sampson (2003), persistence of delinquency or criminal behavior is caused by lack of social control, purposeful human agency and few routine activities. On other hand, desistence in crime is caused by a confluence of social controls, purposeful human agency as well as structured routine activities.
When it comes to social control, there are various institutions that influence desistence of crime. These include family and work. These are particularly referred to as turning points and can play a huge role in desistence. According to the PowerPoint, marriage can, for example, influence the onset of routine activities and also change an individual’s sense of self and, therefore, lead to desistence from offending and delinquency. The PowerPoint also mentions that people who desist from offending are distinguished from those who continue with offending by long-term stability in both employment and marriage. Military service can also be quite important as it brings about discipline.
In the study conducted by Laub and Sampson (2003), they found that the people who persisted in offending showed significantly different experiences when it came to the mentioned turning points. For example, the remarriages were unstable, many had no stable jobs and lacked employments skills. Other were also ejected from military school meaning that they were not instilled with discipline that could have brought about desistence.
With these findings, there are several questions that arise: Can a delinquent individual not go through the various turning points and still desist from offending? Is it possible for one to make a personal decision to desist from offending later on life without being influenced by social control factors?