Recently, I attended a seminar on the neuroscience and the cognitive frameworks that drive criminal behavior. I was fascinated by the complexity and simplicity of the workshop content. One of the takeaways was the six traits that can lead to criminal and maladaptive behaviors. Given the crime crisis that we are experiencing in the nation, this needs to be part of the public discourse.
These 6 traits are:
1. Anti-social values. This is characterized by blaming others, lack of remorse or empathy, entitlement, resistance and negatively regarding social norms.
2. Peers who are involved in crime. Negative peer pressure, many times, influences and persuades the non-criminal to engage in criminal behavior. They have a lack of prosocial community involvement. Often peers are involved with drugs or alcohol.
3. Anti-social personality. This is characterized by anger, fighting, bullying, skipping school, lying, stealing, running away from home, disrespect, cruelty to animals or vandalism.
4. Dysfunctional family. This is the most common trait which includes lack of family support, physically, emotionally, financially, socially, or intellectually. Abandonment, neglect, negative modeling, lack of communication, violence, abuse, and the lack of ability to solve problems. These types of families usually operate in survival mode and their home is often characterized by chaos. Family members may also be involved in criminal behavior.
5. Lack of self-regulation or impulse control. This is characterized by snap decision-making based on feelings often resulting in negative consequences. This type of individual focuses on the immediate situation, rather than having a future-orientation mindset.
6. Substance abuse. Substance abuse affects one’s ability to engage in prosocial behaviors. The younger a child begins to use substances, the more likely they become addicted which contributes to the cycle of maladaptive behaviors.
As these six traits are outlined in the literature, I was struck with how they could be mitigated if we had the will. We spend trillions on law enforcement, prisons, rehabilitation, and the fallout of crime. We must try prevention first.
To make a seismic shift towards primary prevention, we must address these 6 areas of dysfunction. By offering parents classes from the time of the birth of their babies about the psychology of development, the basic needs frameworks of Maslow, the architecture and growth of the human brain, the skills to attend to, nurture, care for and love these little ones into pro-social behaviors and future success. We must assist and teach couples how to care for one another and provide relationship skills training so that once they children, they can commit to care for them in nurturing ways. We must, as a nation, commit to healthy family formation, marriage, family strengthening, responsible fatherhood, and maintenance of healthy relationships, especially to those who have children. We must teach children and adults the value of societal norms, marriage, family and the constructs of connection and human thriving. At the Center for Relationship Education, we have created a suite of curricula which includes activities on how to teach these skills to diverse audiences, in schools, community-based organizations, the workplace, social services and to parents. Please join us to help break the cycle of crime, substance use, antisocial behavior, child abuse and family dysfunction. The health of the nation depends on all of us working together. joneen@myrelationshipcenter.org