Forty Four Juvenile Thieves

3 Key excerpts on "Forty Four Juvenile Thieves"

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  Crime and the Human Mind

  • David Abrahamsen(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Columbia University Press

    (Publisher)

  VII J U V E N I L E AND W A R DELINQUENCY T H E R E IS N O doubt that the largest number of offenders start their criminal careers in childhood and early youth. Since there is a continual interplay between a child's intellectual and emotional forces, almost all of his activity, as Lauretta Bender 1 has emphasized, has to be considered from both viewpoints. This activity includes that of an antisocial nature. Juvenile offenders belong mainly to the momentary or acute type, but in the course of time many of them may become chronic offenders. Actually, it is from the juvenile offenders that the chronic are recruited. That we have to group many youthful offenders as either acute or chronic is only one of the limitations caused by the artificial classification to which we are necessarily restricted. Since criminalistic tendencies are present in all humans, a child may frequently be tempted to take secretly toys, candies, and the like. A t such an early age he will not, under usual circumstances, have learned sufficiently to distinguish between mine and thine. (About this development, see Chapter IV.) Such an inclination is more understandable when we remember that the child, compared with the adult, has no or few means of acquiring money. If we con-sider his desires, needs, and impulsiveness, it is rather surprising that he so often is able to refrain from stealing, which he does, not only because he lacks comprehension of the deed, but largely be-cause of his fear of punishment. When he does steal, it is mostly a swift reaction to a momentary impulse. He optimistically believes that he can escape the consequences and herein lies a possible basis for his becoming an offender. W e then see that due to the personality make-up of the juvenile, theft is his usual offense. This is also reflected in the statistics of crime distribution. Larceny and burglary constituted 33.3 and 46.6 per cent respectively of offenses committed in 1941 by those under 1 L.

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  Retail Security and Loss Prevention Solutions

  • Alan Greggo, Millie Kresevich(Authors)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  All 10 incarcerated boys mentioned being involved with drugs—mostly selling. All were repeat EXPLORING THE PSYCHOLOGY SUPPORTING THE THEFT TRIANGLE 41 offenders. Only one mentioned using drugs. Among the 10 boys, their first theft offense occurred between the ages of 7 and 17. The items they first stole ranged from candy to cars. Of those incarcerated, 3 of 10 first stole a bike from the neighborhood. Only 1 of 10 first stole a car. A total of 8 of 10 admitted to being shown by a peer or family member how to steal. This provides support for the differential association theory. Only 1 male showed remorse for what he had done to others, and 1 of 10 admitted to receiving significant punishment due to their acts of deviance. The other 9 had little or no consequences for bad behavior.

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  Children and Separation

  Socio-Genealogical Connectedness Perspective

  • Kwame Owusu-Bempah(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  It is an unquestionable fact that until his death in 1990, at age of 83, John Bowlby was (and continues to be) a highly influential theorist and writer on child development. His legacy still endures. Holmes (1993) has described attachment theory as one of the most important theoretical developments in psychoanalysis since Freud; that the theory has had an enormous impact on child development, social work, psychotherapy, psychology and psychiatry. To this list we must add education and family law, at least in relation to child custody and adoption decisions. Among Bowlby’s most important studies was ‘The Forty-Four Juvenile Thieves’. This seminal work firmly linked emotional and behavioural problems in childhood with ‘broken homes’ – maternal (parental) separation – and formed the impetus for attachment theory’s development. The study held delinquency and inability to form meaningful relationships to be the consequences of ‘broken homes’. Bowlby’s later report (1951) to the World Health Organization (WHO) popularized and reinforced this belief:

  The evidence is now such that it leaves no room for doubt … that the prolonged deprivation of a young child of maternal care may have grave and far reaching effects on his character and so on the whole of his future life.

  (quoted in Howe, 1995, p. 47)

  Together with Bowlby’s other claims this became a creed which, bolstered by similar conclusions reached by subsequent studies, has influenced not only research but also family law and professional childcare practice globally.

  ‘THE FORTY-FOUR JUVENILE THIEVES’

  In this study Bowlby (1944) compared the behavioural and emotional development of juvenile delinquents (aged between 5.7 years and 16.2 years) with those of a control non-delinquent client group, matched in terms of age and socio-economic status. On the basis of his clinical diagnoses, he classified the children into six character types (see Table 3.1 ).

  The ‘affectionless characters’ (or ‘antisocial psychopaths’) were identified as the most incorrigible and troublesome subgroup among the thieves. Their distinguishing features included ‘a remarkable lack of affection or warmth or feeling for anyone, solitariness, undemonstrativeness, and unresponsiveness’ (Bowlby, 1944, p. 38). They responded neither to kindness nor punishment. Such children truanted and ‘wandered’, which Bowlby saw as a characteristic sign of indifference to home ties: ‘The affectionless character is capable of neither attachment, affection, nor loyalty.’ He described them as unique and hard-nosed criminals, compared to the other groups of delinquents, and summarized their character unequivocally thus:

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