The Role of Learning in Explaining Assault
The topic of my paper is The Role of Learning in Explaining Assault. I came to this topic because I feel that finding out whether or not violent and aggressive behavior, which leads to such crimes as assault, is something that a child learns from others is very important. You always hear offenders of serious crimes use the excuse that they were abused as children or they came from an abusive household or environment. If that is the case then America has a serious problem. As sad as it is, it does seem to be the case when it comes to violent offenders. There are so many documented case of child abuse leading to a life of future crime. There have been numerous research projects and experiments done on criminals that show that their lives of crime stemmed back to violent and abusive childhood. Statistics seem to show that individuals who witnessed abuse or who were victims themselves of abuse tend to learn this behavior as a way of life and continue it throughout their lives. Now, I am not saying that everyone who is abused or witnesses abusive situations during their childhood will become criminals because some don’t. Some can overcome it and become productive members of society. But the fact is still there that a great portion of these victims cannot. That is where the problem comes in.
This paper will show whether or not the violent behavior behind an assault is a learned behavior that stems from abuse as a child, growing up in an abusive household or environment. There is a violent and aggressive behavior that causes someone to assault another, but can that behavior be attributed to what the subject has learned from parents, guardians or peers. The significance of this paper is to show just how much of an impact abuse or physical violence has on children and the rest of their lives. Whether they witnessed it or were abused themselves, what impact did it have in their lives?
My theory is that children, who are victims of abuse or are in a household or environment where there is domestic abuse or any kind of abuse, will more likely learn this behavior and carry it with them throughout their lives without getting some kind of therapy or help.
The design I would use for this research experiment would be an experimental design consisting of two conditionings of the independent variable. The first having participants who were victims of abuse, who have committed assaults and are in prison. The second would consist of participants who witnessed abuse as a child, who have committed assault and are in prison. (I will go into the design more later in this paper.) As for the results I would expect to find out of this experiment, I would expect to find that this violent and aggressive behavior is a learned behavior for most of the subjects in this experiment. The test that I would use if I did this experiment would be a one-way chi-square because I would be obtaining data that consist of frequencies with which the participants belong to different categories of one variable. (I will go into this more later in the paper.)
I believe that this is a great topic and I hope that you will learn just as much as I will from it because if things are as bad as they seem to be, the fate of America’s children is in all of our hands. We need to do more to protect them and their futures.
Topic: The role of Learning in Explaining Assault.
RQ: Is the behavior behind an assault a learned behavior?
Article 1:
Meyerson LA, Long PJ, Moranda R Jr., Marx BP. (2002) “The Influence of
Childhood Sexual Abuse, Physical Abuse, Family Environment, and Gender
on the Psychological Adjustment of Adolescents.” Child Abuse Neglect Journal.
Apr: 26(4): 387-405.
This article relates to my topic of study because it shows that in addition to sexual and physical abuse, family conflict and cohesion play a role in the psychological development of children and adolescences.
Article 2:
Hummel P, Thomke V, Oldenburger H, Specht F. (2000) “Male Adolescent Sex
Offenders Against Children: Similarities and Differences Between Those
Offenders With and Those Without a History of Sexual Abuse.” Journal of
Adolescence. June: 23(3): 305-317.
This article relates to my topic because it shows that there was a more frequent absence of the parents of the males who had committed sexual offenses and had a history of sexual abuse as children.
Article 3:
Bevan E, Higgins D. (2000) “Is Domestic Violence Learned? The Contribution of
Five Forms of Child Maltreatment to Men’s Violence and Adjustment.” Journal
Of Family Violence. Sept; 17(3): 223-245.
This article relates to my topic because it shows that witnessing family violence was found to have an association with psychological spouse abuse and trauma syptomatology.
Article 4:
Kjelsberg E. (2000) “Pathways to Violent and Non-Violent Criminality in an
Adolescent Psychiatric Population.” Child Psychiatry and Human Development.
Fall; 33(1): 29-42.
This article relates to my topic because it shows that individuals with a history of violent criminality only were uncommon and uncharacteristic of violent criminals in general.
Article 5:
Vermeiren R, Ruchkin V, Leckman P, Deboutte D, Stone M. (2000) “Exposure
to Violence and Suicide Risk in Adolescents: A Community Study.” Journal of
Abnormal Child Psychology. Oct; 30(5): 529-537.
This article relates to my topic because it shows that the idea of suicide and deliberate self-harm are both related to violent exposure.
Article 6:
Duncan S, Strycker L, Duncan T, Okut H. (2002) “A Multilevel Contextual
Model of Family Conflict and Deviance.” Journal of Psychopathology and
Behavior Assessment. Sept; 24(3): 169-175.
This article relates to my topic because it shows neighborhood desirability can influence family conflict and that family conflict can influence family levels of deviance.
Article 7:
Martin S, Clements M. (2002) “Young Children’s Responding to Interparental
Conflict: Associations With Marital Aggression and Child Adjustment.” Journal
of Child and Family Studies. June; 11(2): 231-244.
This article relates to my topic because it shows a potential pathway linking exposure to marital conflict, children’s regulatory strategies and children’s behavioral adjustment outside the home.
Article 8:
Hill-Smith A, Hugo P, Fonagy P, Hartman D. (2002) “Adolescent Murderers:
Abuse and Adversity in Childhood.” Journal of Adolescence. Apr; 25(2): 221-
230.
This article relates to my topic because it shows that lower socio-economic status, harsh parenting and exclusion from school were significantly more common for murderers.
Article 9:
Barkin S, Kreiter S, Durant R. (2001) “Exposure to Violence and Intentions
to Engage in Moralistic Violence During Early Adolescence.” Journal of
Adolescence. Dec; 24(6): 777-789.
This article relates to my topic because it shows that unconventional peer social norms, such as witnessing violence, increase the subject’s intentions to use violence. When they were involved in conventional activities, their intentions decreased.
Article 10:
Farrington d, Jolliffe D, Loeber R, Loeber M, Kalb L. (2001) “The Concentration
of Offenders in Family, and Family Criminality in the Prediction of Boys’
Delinquency.” Journal of Adolescence. Oct; 24(5): 579-596.
This article relates to my topic because it shows that arrests of the father (among arrests of other family members) predict the boys’ delinquency. It also states that having a young mother and living in a bad environment may be links to the chain between arrested fathers and delinquent boys.
Article 11:
Chambers J, Power K, Loucks N, Swanson V. (2001) “The Interaction of
Perceived Maternal and Paternal Parenting Styles and Their Relation With
the Psychological Distress and Offending Characteristics of Incarcerated
Young Offenders.” Journal of Adolescence. Apr; 24(2): 209-227.
This article relates to my topic because it shows that young offenders who received poor parenting from both parents had the highest levels of psychological distress.
Article 12:
Vachass A. (1990) “Today’s Victim Could Be Tomorrow’s Predator.” Source
Book of Criminal Justice 2000. United States Department of Justice Bureau,
Bureau of Statistics. Washington DC:USGPO.
This article relates to my topic because it states the fact that criminals are made, not born that way. It states that abused or neglected children can learn criminal behavior from their environment, such as family and society. It also states that we need to treat child protective work as our first and best opportunity to prevent crime.
Article 13:
Simon T, Perkins C. (2001) “Injuries From Violent Crime, 1992-98.” Bureau
of Justice Statistics. U. S. Department of Justice: USDOJ.GOV/BJS.
This article relates to my topic because it states that of the violent crimes measured by the NCVS, 32% involved injury by a family member to the victim.
Assault is a very common crime that happens everyday all over the world. However, the concern is whether or not the violent behavior behind an act of assault is a learned behavior. Is this behavior attributed to what is learned from parents, guardians or peers? The significance of this experiment is to show how much of an impact abuse or physical violence has on children and the rest of their lives.
My theory is that children who are victims of abuse or are in a household or environment where there is domestic abuse or any kind of abuse will more than likely learn this behavior and carry this behavior with them throughout the rest of their lives without some kind of help to deal with it.
I would use an experimental design consisting of two conditionings of the independent variable. I would have fifty participants who are in prison due to committing an assault. The first group would consist of participants who are victims of abuse, who have committed assault and are in prison. The second group would consist of participants who have witnessed abuse as a child, committed assault and are in prison. I would use a survey to determine whether or not being abused as a child or witnessing abuse by growing up in a violent household can attribute to the subjects becoming criminals who commit assaults due to behavior they learned from parents, guardians, peers or society. All of the fifty participants would be given the same survey. The survey would consist of the following questions:
1. What is your age?
2. Are you a male or female?
3. What race are you?
4. What was the highest level of education that you completed?
5. Where were you raised?
6. Were you raised by both parents, one parent (mother or father?), a relative, and a foster home?
7. What type of economic status would you consider the household to have? Upper, Middle or Lower Class?
8. How many other children were in the household besides you?
9. Would you consider your living environment to have been normal or not normal?
10. Was there any violent behavior in your household? By whom?
11. Did you witness any of this violent behavior, if any?
12. If yes, have you had any kind of help dealing with it? If so, what kind of help?
13. Did you receive any kind of violent behavior or abuse? By whom?
14. If yes, did you receive any kind of help to deal with this issue? If so, what kind of help?
15. How was witnessing or receiving this abuse affected the outcome of the rest of your life?
16. Do you feel that you learned this behavior from others or are your crimes of your own free will? Explain your answer.
By the participants answering the questions on this survey, we should be able to gather information on whether or not the violent and aggressive behavior behind the act of an assault is a learned behavior or not. We should be able to determine whether or not witnessing violent behavior or being exposed to a violent household or environment can or does attribute to the subjects committing crimes such as assault later on in life. It should also show whether or not the participants feel that witnessing this behavior or being abused themselves attribute to their lives now because they were doing what they were taught or what they learned as a child.
I would use a one-way chi-square to test the data that I received from the survey, because I would be obtaining data that consist of frequencies with which participants belong to different categories of one variable. That one variable in this experiment is that they all committed assault. Whether they witnessed it as a child or were abused themselves as children.
Here are some tables that I found to show some statistics childhood abuse and assault:
Aggravated assault, by sex of victim
For 18 to 21, men twice as likely as women to be victimized
Rates per 1,000 persons
Victims' age Male Female
12 to 14 26.4 15.5
15 to 17 39.1 18.2
18 to 21 39.5 19.1
22 to 24 31.2 14.6
25 to 29 21.1 12.3
30 to 34 12.3 9.7
35 to 39 12.8 5.5
40 to 49 11.6 5.1
50 to 64 4.4 2.5
65 or older 1.9 0.7
(Source: http://ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/apvsvc.txt)
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Table 2. Relationship to abuser, by the inmate or probationer reporting abuse
Percent of those persons who reported experiencing physical or sexual abuse before admission
Relationship of State inmates Federal inmates
victim to abuser Male Female Male Female
Knew abuser 89.5% 90.6% 86.3% 95.4%
Family 66.6 40.1 56.7 34.8
Parent or guardian 54.1 27.2 49.0 24.3
Other relative 22.0 21.0 15.1 15.4
Intimate 5.8 61.3 6.5 66.3
Spouse/ex-spouse 2.2 36.5 1.9 41.0
Boyfriend/girlfriend 4.4 36.0 4.8 36.0
Friend/acquaintance 22.6 26.2 24.4 17.2
Other 17.4 15.8 18.7 10.5
Knew none of abusers 10.5% 9.4% 13.7% 4.6%
Note: Detail does not add to totals because some were abused by more than 1 person.
(Source: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/parip.txt)
DISCUSSION
Through this research we should be able to see the impact, if any, that being abused or growing up in an abusive household or environment can have on someone who has committed a crime such as assault. I feel there is a relationship between the two and I feel that this experiment would show that. Through future research we should be able to see further correlations between these two factors. Through these findings I hope that more is done to protect children against abuse and/or protect them from having to live in an abusive household or environment. That way maybe we can keep more children from becoming future criminals. I really feel that this is something that needs to be looked at and dealt with more closely.
References
Meyerson LA, Long PJ, Moranda R Jr., Marx BP. (2002) “The Influence of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Physical Abuse, Family Environment, and Gender on the Psychological Adjustment of Adolescents.” Child Abuse Neglect Journal. Apr; 26(4): 387-405.
Hummel P, Thomke V, Oldenburger H, Specht F. (2000) “Male Adolescent Sex Offenders Against Children: Similarities and Differences Between Those Offenders With and Without a History of Sexual Abuse.” Journal of Adolescence. June; 23(3): 305-317.
Bevan E, Higgins D. (2000) “Is Domestic Violence Learned? The Contribution of Five Forms of Child Maltreatment to Men’s Violence and Adjustment.” Journal of Family Violence. Sept; 17(3): 223-245.
Kjelsberg E. (2000) “Pathways to Violent and Non-Violent Criminality in an Adolescent Psychiatric Population.” Child Psychiatry and Human Development. Fall; 33(1): 29-42.
Vermeiren R, Ruchkin V, Leckman P, Deboutte D, Stone M. (2000) “Exposure to Violence and Suicide Risk in Adolescents: A Community Study.” Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. Oct; 30(5): 529-537.
Duncan S, Strycker L, Duncan T, Okut H. (2002) “A Multilevel Contextual Model of Family Conflict and Deviance.” Journal of Psychopathology and Behavior Assessment. Sept; 24(3): 169-175.
Martin S, Clements M. (2002) “Young Children’s Responding to Interparental Conflict: Associations With Martial Aggression and Child Adjustment.” Journal of Child and Family Studies. June; 11(2): 231-244.
Hill-Smith A, Hugo P, Fonagy P, Hartman D. (2002) “Adolescent Murderers: Abuse and Adversity in Childhood.” Journal of Adolescence. Apr; 25(2): 221-230.
Barkin
S, Kreiter S, Durant R. (2001) “Exposure to Violence and Intentions to Engage
in Moralistic Violence During Early Adolescence.” Journal of Adolescence.
Dec; 24(6): 777-789.
Farrington D, Jolliffe D, Loeber R, Loeber M, Kalb L. (2001) “The Concentration of Offenders in Family, and Family Criminality in the Prediction of Boys’ Delinquency.” Journal of Adolescence. Oct; 24(5): 579-596.
Chambers J, Power K, Loucks N, Swanson V. (2001) “The Interaction of Perceived Maternal and Paternal Parenting Styles and Their Relation With the Psychological Distress and Offending Characteristics of Incarcerated Young Offenders.” Journal of Adolescence. Apr; 24(2): 209-227.
Vachass A. (1990) “Today’s Victim Could Be Tomorrow’s Predator.” Source Book of Criminal Justice 2000. United States Department of Justice Bureau, Bureau of Statistics. Washington DC:USGPO.
Simon T, Perkins C. (2001) “Injuries From Violent Crime, 1992-98.” Bureau of Justice Statistics. United States Department of Justice: USDOJ.GOV/BJS.
Harlow C. (1999) “Prior Abuse Reported By Inmates and Probationers.” Bureau of Justice Statistics. United States Department of Justice: USDOJ.GOV/BJS.