• crime - acquiring resources illegally (property crimes) and/or asserting control over others through violence (personal crimes)

• crime result of status competition

2) graffiti and murder

3) sample interventions known to prevent crime
 
 

correlates/risk factors/predictors of crime

• people w/ characteristics more likely to commit crimes

• research w/ longitudinal designs

• male sex
• adolescence and early adulthood
• lower socioeconomic status
• race: black > white > Asian
• child abuse and neglect, poor family management
• family violence
• family history of crime
• single parent family
• family size (many siblings)
• perinatal difficulties (preterm delivery, low birthweight, etc.)
• minor physical abnormalities
• brain damage
• unhealthy communities (high levels of crime and violence, physical deterioration, low attachment to neighborhood, low life expectancy)

• many/most w/ these characteristics don't turn to crime, but most criminals have several

• U.S. men committed 90-9% of serious crimes in 1992

• women limited in # of kids they can have

• women choosy about mates, seek men able/willing to provide for kids

• therefore, women more risk-averse, don't compete for status involving violence, potential legal penalty

• women compete w/ each other on those characteristics men value in mates (appearance, nurturing, friendliness, intelligence, fidelity)

• men unlimited in # of kids they can have

• therefore, strong urge to compete for status even w/ risk is adaptive

• sex ratio: men > women ---> less crime; women > men ---> more crime

• women choosier when there are more men, which promotes men's status striving in legal ways

• competition for resources/status most intense/crucial at life stage when competing for mates

• demographic shifts influence crime rate (e.g., w/ many young males, crime goes up)

• individuals or groups most inhibited from rising in status in legal ways

• higher status persons use their higher status to commit crimes to acquire more resources (e.g., income tax fraud)

• most critical during early years when individual acquires basic models of social world

• children receive fewer resources from parents (tangible & intangible)

• difficulties w/ learning, parent attachment to children

unhealthy communities (high levels of crime and violence, physical deterioration, low attachment to neighborhood, low life expectancy)

• trigger psych. mechanisms for expectations

• r - reproductive success (mating effort)

• K - inclusive fitness (parenting effort)

• demographic factors promote cognitive and behavior patterns that strain toward r-selection

• crime = r-strategy

• impulsiveness
• hyperactivity
• risk-taking and sensation/excitement seeking
• early and persistent antisocial behavior
• academic failure
• lack of commitment to school
• drug/alcohol use
• promiscuity and unstable romantic relationships
• association with criminal others

• not necessarily pathologies, but normal and perhaps adaptive responses to particular environments

Brewer & Miller discussion
 

• emic/etic

 
• network density - how connected persons are to each other by social ties

 

 
 
 

 
• reproductive benefits of gang membership--males' number of sex partners increases after joining gang,  decreases after leaving gang

 

 
 
 

 
• males killing males make up the overwhelming proportion of same-sex murders (about 95-6%)

 
• precipitating factors/motives:

 
• trivial altercations involving perceived slights/insults or arguments
• restricted to interactions between nonrelatives
• account for approx. 40% of murders
• reputations/face/honor/relative status on the line
• especially true w/ lower status persons

in EEA and some current environments, losers in interactions drop in status, more likely vicitimized & spurned as mates

 
• robbery homicides have element of status competition
• other common precipitants or motives:

 
• conflicts over money/business
• retaliation/revenge
• sexual jealousy

 
• sex differences in frequency and length of homicidal fantasies

 
• ever had a fantasy?

men = 79%, women = 58%
• frequent fantasies?

men = 38%,  women = 8%
• length? men = few minutes, women = few seconds
• precipitants/triggers:

 
• personal threat (men = 71%, women = 52%)
• something stolen from you (men = 57%, women = 42%)
• curiosity about killing (men = 32%, women = 8%)
• conflict over money (men = 27%, women = 10%)
• public humiliation (men = 59%, women = 45%)
• targets of fantasized homicides:

 
• stranger (men = 53%, women = 33%)
• national leader (men = 34%, women = 17%)
• boss (men = 35%, women = 21%)

 
• murder most often outgrowth of conflicts over status and resources, especially among persons predisposed to settle conflicts violently

Interventions to Prevent Crime (sampling)

 
• Perry Preschool (Schweinhart, Barnes, Weikart)

 
• poor African-American children in Michigan in early 1960s randomly assigned to:
a) cognitively-oriented preschool with weekly home visits by teacher to guide parents in kids' educational tasks, or
b) no preschool program/home visits
• children followed through to age 27, outcomes measured through interviews and official records
• outcomes:
• improved intellectual and academic performance
• 90 or higher IQ at age 5:
program = 64%, control = 27%
• h.s. graduation
program = 71%, control = 54%
• prevented criminal behavior
• 5+ arrests by age 27
program = 7%, control = 35%
• ever arrested by age 27
program = 57%, control = 69%
• K-oriented outcomes
for women:
• married
program = 40%, control = 8%
• mean # out-of-wedlock births
program = 1.0, control = 1.7
• ever abortion
program = 4%, control = 23%
• single parent
program = 32%, control = 54%
• mean age at first birth
program = 22, control = 19
for men:
• married
program and control = 26%
• mean years married
program = 6.2, control = 3.3
• home ownership
prog. = 52%, control = 21%
• monthly income
prog. = $1,368, cont. = $830
• cost effective - each dollar spent on program saved public $7.16

 
• Childhaven (Moore, Armsden, Gogerty - Seattle)

 
• therapeutic daycare for abused and neglected children (about 1 year old)
• parent training, support, social services referral
• kids randomly assigned to Childhaven or standard community/CPS services
• outcomes:
• by age 12-13, Childhaven kids had more positive home enviroments and caregiver-child relationships
• delinquency record
Childhaven = 26%, control = 38%
• serious/violent crime record
Childhaven = 4%, control = 24%

 
• Policing - intensified motorized patrol (Scnelle et al.)

 
• alternating periods of 9-5 helicopter and car patrol vs. car patrol only in high burglary area in Nashville
• substantial decrease in burglaries during helicopter patrol period
• no spillover of burglaries into other neighborhoods
• cost-effective
• simply reduces opportunity to commit crime

 
• preschool, therapeutic child care for abused/neglected children, and intensified police patrol each can prevent crime appreciably and are cost-effective

 
• address risk factors during critical periods that shape the development of criminal behavior and r-strategies, or reduce opportunities to commit crime