Sample Essay On Linking Childhood Delinquency And Adult Crime

Response 1

As the author has brilliantly explained, the social control theory proposed by Laub and Sampson has two key concepts that include the trajectory and the transitions. Transitions occur along this trajectory and include key events such as marriage. There is no doubt that parents have the most influence on a child while in adulthood, it is the transitions such as marriage that have the greater influence. The author is very right in saying that engagement in crime during childhood and adolescence increases the chances of engaging in future crime or bad behavior and when this occur, things such as marriages or holding on to good jobs are likely to last only for a short time. The author has also touched on Moffit’s taxonomy theory that suggests that offenders are divisible into two segments; those who commit crime and are delinquent throughout their lives and those who are delinquent only in their adolescence. For the latter, this is attributable to inept parenting while, for the latter, it is due to peer influence which eventually wears off.

Response 2

It is very easy to agree with the author’s assertion that domestic violence is one of the most disgusting forms of marital breakdown. The authors then goes on to list the actions or activities that constitute domestic violence, and these include punching, joking, biting, beating, and threatening using an object such as a knife or gun. The author also quotes some researchers who have given explanations as to why domestic violence takes place. It emerges that some men who are violent legitimately view themselves as the controllers of women. There are, however, two types of violence as shown by the author; common couple violence where both partners are equally violent and intimate terrorism where one person exerts violence and control on the other. The author states that children raised in such homes adopt the idea that this is the way to express themselves and solve problems. However, the author states that marital violence may actually be the result of harsh parenting rather than violent parenting actions. This final statement is however quite debatable.