Psychology

To ascertain whether children facilitate in interaction between strangers, a literature review as well as a study was conducted. Both the literature review and the study suggested that the children definitely help in breaking the ice. People trust strangers who are accompanied by a child more than a stranger who is alone or accompanied by an adult. Since it is difficult to turn away from the affectionate smile of a child, a stranger not only finds it easier to communicate with him but also to communicate with the adult whom the child is accompanying.

However a research is required to ascertain how much trust does the adult who is most likely to be a childs family member has on the stranger who is showing signs of affection towards the child or is passing on a friendly gesture to the adult with him. Since there has been growing instances of cases of child abuse, this angle needs further research.

Discussion
While interacting with a child we are more likely to use a variety of facial expressions and gestures. Since facial expressions and gestures constitute a significant portion of our communication, interaction with children becomes easier even in a short while. Adults need a longer amount of time to really start conversing with each other. They start conversing with words first. There is stiffness in communication between two strange adults for a longer period of time when compared to communication between two strange adults and a child accompanying either of them. Humans are the only animals to communicate through the medium of words. I recently spent several hours watching apes communicating with one another. Watching a female ape bonding with an abandoned baby ape via submission signals, stage-by-stage touch and some periods of complete back-off reminded me just how much we lost when we learnt to talk. (James, 2008) Since childrens knowledge of vocabulary is limited, they are very good observers of body language. They at once understand and reciprocate to the gestures of adults even when they dont know them. If a person sees that his or her child is able to build a good communication with a stranger, he too builds a rapport, which might be limited to just a few seconds. Even if the interaction between two strangers is more than a few seconds it is limited mostly to the facial expressions like a smile or two or nodding of head. These will most likely be divided between the child and the adult and not only to the adult. The sweeter the facial expression of the stranger towards the child is, the more are the chances of him getting acquainted with the adult.  The face is an endlessly fascinating canvass on which, we express our emotions. Hence if one is good to a stranger child, he comes across as a good human being to the stranger adult accompanying him. It has been rightly pointed out by Reiman that

First, you take an accurate read of the other persons thoughts and feelings by decoding her body language, then you respond with physical signals that both acknowledge her unspoken messages and accurately reflect your own. (Reiman, 2007) No matter how kind ones words are, if they dont match with the body language it is very easy to detect deception, unease and dissonance. An adults mind is preoccupied with so many things that he might some time falter in decoding, but not a child. If you are really friendly a childs inner sensor will say, that this stranger is safe. When the child shows friendliness towards the stranger, the person accompanying him automatically reacts more positively.

There are different learning theories that different people use in the process of learning. Moreover, an individual can have more than one learning theory depending on the learning abilities of the individual, the learning program employed in the learning institution the individual is enrolled to or the content of the knowledge to be learnt. Therefore, teachers and students as well as learning institutions administrators should understand that individuals do not learn in the same way. The educators should also understand that a style applicable to a student or a group of students may not apply to all students the educator is likely to encounter. My personal learning theories are the facilitation theory and the sensory stimulation theory.
    Among my personal learning theories is the facilitation theory. This theory was developed by Carl Roger together with other scholars in education psychology. The theory is based on the principle that in the event of learning, there must be a facilitator who is mainly the educator or any other person who can facilitate the learning process. The role of the facilitator in this case is to ensure that the learner experiences the best learning environment that will aid in the ability of the learner to absorb new ideas. The theory suggests that learning requires a favorable environment where the learner is comfortable and not vulnerable to external dynamics in order to put into consideration new ideas (Sinclair, n d).
    The facilitation learning theory is based on the fact that all human beings have a natural and very strong eagerness to gather new ideas and knowledge. With this believe in mind, the role of the learning institution and the teachers is to facilitate the learning process by providing the necessary environment. The other characteristic of the theory of facilitation is the natural resistance to give up the already held fact as true and the unpleasant effects of giving up what is held to be true. Therefore, based on this theory, the most fundamental aspect of learning is the process of changing the concept held by the learner.
    This theory has several strong points in that the educators who employ this theory are not as protective as other educators on their viewpoint and constructs. They give a room for learners to express their views and correct them appropriately and therefore facilitating the consideration of new ideas by the learners. The educators and teachers are therefore able to know their learners feelings which in turn increase the interpersonal relationship between the learner and the educator. This aspect is essential in any learning process. To facilitate learning, the educator should lay as much emphasis to the learner-teacher relationship as to the content being learnt. The facilitator should therefore be able to accommodate feedback and responses from the learner which are both positive and negative. The teacher can use these responses from the learners constructively in the improvement of his delivery as well as evaluation of the learners learning rate (Sinclair, n d).
    The facilitation theory of learning is learner based in that it encourages the learner to make efforts to learn while the role of the teacher is facilitation. The learner is encouraged to be responsible for his or her own learning such that he or she can learn in the absence of a teacher. Most of the learning activities therefore involve individual learners experiences and insights about the concepts being taught. The facilitator is therefore able to guide the learner from the known to unknown. The learner is also encouraged to evaluate themselves on the understanding of the concepts. In fact, self evaluation has proved to be the most important method of evaluation and should therefore be promoted among the learners. The learning process can only be effective if and only if the learner can solve significant problems related to the taught concepts and the intended results have been attained (Sinclair, n d).
    My other personal learning theory is the sensory stimulation theory. This theory is based on the principle that a learner is able to learn if his senses are stimulated. Research indicates that over three quarters of the knowledge accumulated by majority of the people is learnt through seeing, about a quarter of the knowledge is acquired through hearing while some good amount is obtained through smelling, touching or tasting. Therefore, stimulating the senses of the learner is a basic practice in any learning activity. The educator should therefore make attempts of stimulating as many senses as possible in the learning process. This can be done by the use of appropriate color varieties, variation of the volume and tones, use of strong and attractive statements as well as visual presentations.

Developmental theories present a framework designed for thinking concerning the growth of humans, their maturity as well their learning. Have you ever wondered what motivates the thoughts of humans and their conduct These theories of development will assist us to give an insight into individuals and the society at large.

Freuds stages of psychosexual development.
According to Sigmund Freud, personality is mostly in children by about the age of five years. The early experiences of a person play a major role in the progress of their personality and will go on to influence their conduct in their grown-up life.
Freud held that an individuals personality develops throughout a sequence of stages during early days in which the fulfillment of the individual becomes focused on certain erogenous areas.  The psychosexual energy was described as the motivating force behind a persons behavior. Completions of these stages successfully result in a healthy personality. If certain issues are not through at a certain phase, then an individual can become stuck. Where there is continual focus on a previous stage, one will not progress towards the next psychosexual stage. The following are the stages in Freuds theory.
The oral stage
During this period, the infants main source of contact occurs through the mouth. The mouth is essential for consumption plus the infant derives satisfaction from oral stimulation through gratifying actions like tasting as well as sucking. The infant in this period then develops confidence on his caretakers and consequently a sense of faith and reassurance.
The only problem at this stage is that if fixation occurs because of weaning then the individual would have problems with dependency or violent behavior. Oral fixation can be capable of also resulting in drinking problems, smoking or yet lead to nail biting.
Anal stage
During this stage, Freud argued that the libido controlled the bladder as well as bowel movements. The main problem in this stage is teaching a kid how to use the bathroom the child has to be taught to control himherself. Accomplishment in this phase occurred after parents learned how best to approach bathroom training. Parents who praised and also rewarded their children for appropriately using the lavatory had affirmative results. Individuals who have had positive experiences at this stage became resourceful adults, capable and more fruitful. Those who have negative experiences or the parents had improper parental responses in an anal-expulsive character where the person develops to be disorganized, have a destructive personality or become inefficient.
The Phallic stage
During this stage, Freud observed that the prime focus of the libido is on the genitals. Kids begin to discern the differences between males and females. Boys start to perceive their dads as rivals to their mothers love and they develop thoughts of wanting to posses their mums. However, the child worries that they will be punished by their dads resulting to a fright Freud termed as castration nervousness. Freud on the other hand believed that girls experienced penis jealousy. In the long run, kids become close to the identical sex parent as a way of getting to posses the other parent. But Freud believed that a solution to penis envy has never been found as all women remain stuck in this stage.
The latent stage
In this stage the libido interests are censored. The growth of self-esteem and super ego are in this period. The period starts as soon as the kids go to school and have more worry for peer relations, hobbies and new things that interest them. This is the period or discovery in which the sexual power is there but is directed to areas such as societal interactions and academic pursuits. Freud describes this stage as vital in the development of social and communication skills and self-assurance.
The genital stage
This is the final stage of psychosexual development and the person develops a strong sexual interest in the opposite sex. While the earlier stages focused only on individual needs, there is increased interest on the welfare of others in this stage. If an individual had positive experiences in the other stages then he should be caring, well balanced and warm towards other people. The goal of this stage is to establish a balance between the various life areas.
Piagets theory of Cognitive development
This premise describes cognitive growth in children. Cognitive developments involve changes in cognitive procedure and abilities. According to Piaget and Inhelder (1969) cognitive growth entail processes based on events and later progresses in intellectual operations.
The key concepts in this theory are
Schemas- this describes both the psychological and physical events involved in understanding as well as knowing. Schemas are a class of knowledge that helps an individual to interpret and comprehend the world. Piaget believes a schema comprises both category of knowledge plus the process of receiving that knowledge. As experiences take place, this fresh information is used to adjust, change or add to the previously existing schemas.
Assimilation- this is the practice of taking in fresh information to include already existing schemas. The process is however rather subjective as we are likely to alter experience or information to fit with our preexisting values.
Accommodation- this part of adjustment involves changing or shifting our existing schemas as a result of new information. Accommodation thus involves changing existing schemas or thoughts, as an outcome of new information or experiences.
Equilibration- Piaget argued that all kids try to strike a sense of balance between assimilation as well as accommodation, which is achieved during equilibration. As they progress, it is imperative to maintain equilibrium between adaptation and accommodation. This helps to clarify how children are capable of moving from one stage to the next. Piaget (1932) categorized four stages children go through. They were the sensorimotor stage. This is between birth and two years old. The child interacts with his environment through physical interaction. The child in this stage builds concepts about reality but they dont know that the objects still exist even when they are out of sight. The second stage is the preoperational which includes ages 2-7 years. At this stage the kid is not able to conceptualize theoretically and needs solid objective situations. The third stage is the concrete operations which includes children of ages 7-11 years. In this stage, the child starts to create rational structures through conceptualizing. The child develops conceptual problem solving skills like solving arithmetic equations. Lastly is the formal operations stage which begins at age 11-15 years. In the stage the child has developed conceptual reasoning because they now posses cognitive structures.

ENVIROMENTAL THEORYPSYCHOLOGY
This premise examines the interrelationship involving the environments and human conduct. It explores dealings between persons and groups as well as their physical setting. It provides a prominent place to ecological perceptions, attitudes, evaluations plus representation of accompanying behavior. The turf of environmental psychology describes the environment very broadly including everything that is natural on the globe as well as the public settings, built environments, learning environments as well as   informational environments. One should be able to have a model of human nature that predicts the environmental settings under which humans will conduct themselves in a decent and inspired manner if the problems concerning human-environmental relations are to be solved. With the models in place, an individual can be able to manage protect design andor bring back environments that enhance reasonable behavior, foresee what the likely result will be once these conditions are not met and present solutions. This field explores different issues like the outcome of environmental strain on human performance, common possessions, resource organization, human information processing, way-finding in difficult settings, as well as the promotion of long-lasting conservation behavior.


Recurrent Elements in Environmental Psychology
Attention- Understanding the human conduct starts with perceiving how people discern the environment. This includes two types of stimuli, those that unwillingly, even distractingly control human notice and those things, thoughts or places towards which humans must willingly and with some attempt direct their understanding.
Perception and cognitive maps- how people visualize the natural plus the built environment has been of interest from the start. Information is kept in the mind as spatial networks called cognitive maps. The structures connect ones remembrance of experience through perceptions current events, emotions and thoughts. Its through these impartial networks that individuals know and reflect about their surroundings, plan and carry out their plans.
Preferred environments- individuals tend to look for places where they can experience competence plus confidence and also where they can create a sense of the environment even as they also occupy it. Being concerned and wanting to discover an environment is difficult and requires anonymity. Preserving, restoring and additionally creating a preferred surrounding is thought to boost a sense of well being and behavioral efficiency in human beings.
Conservation behavior- ecological psychology has played a key role in bringing mental knowledge to bear upon the issue of mounting an ecological sustainable society. This field explores environmental attitudes, principles, perceptions and in addition, diverse intervention techniques designed for promoting environmentally correct behavior.
Participation- this field is devoted to enhancing civilian involment in reinstatement efforts, environmental design and organization. It deals with promoting citizen understanding of the environmental activities while ensuring their early and true involvement in the design, organization and in addition, modifications of the environment.
Environmental stress and coping- humans can modify their physical or societal setting to build more accommodating environments where they can control the flow of information or strain inducing stimuli. They can also tolerate the stressful period, incurring psychological costs that they can deal with afterwards.
CROSSOVER THEORY
This premise is from a periodical of managerial psychology. Many studies in management psychology have looked at the characteristics of the job environment that might influence job strain or staff engagement. These studies though overlooked an essential source of the staffs well being and individuals in the immediate environment through which the employees frequently interact. At work they include colleagues and at home they consist of relatives.
It involves transmission across persons whereby work demands result in strains and require commitment. Crossover pressure or strain experienced by those at work may lead towards stress or strain being experienced by their spouse at home. Prior studies have acknowledged several mechanisms that may clarify crossover including quality of interaction with the spouse personal differences in receptiveness to emotions of others as well as similarities among the employee and other individuals with whom they work together.
Bakker and Demerouti (2009) carried a study among Dutch working couples and tested Westman and Vinokurs (1998) study that compassion moderates the crossover of job engagement. The outcome showed that perspective taking slows down the relationship between womens and mens job engagement. Hartel and Page (2009) present theoretical and convenient insight into the method of crossover with the proposition that affects strength as an important illustrative mechanism of crossover. They suggest that individual differences that have an effect on intensity may moderate or may perhaps explain the crossover of distinct emotions such as pleasure and fear in the place of work.

Counseling, coaching and therapy have become a growing concern in the field of psychology.  They have contributed to the rehabilitation of distorted psychological conditions and maladaptive behavior currently faced by many individuals.  The growing demand for therapy has brought about various strategies and theories on the matter.  Some experts have relied and adhered to behavioral approach while some have advocated cognitive approach.  Behavioral and cognitive approaches are founded on different schools of thought.  Resulting studies on behavioral therapies are generally taken from experiments conducted on animals, whereas cognitive modes are based on scientific studies conducted on human beings which are the basic and sole concern of psychological therapies.  The former relates to behavior of an individual without regard to affect and cognition, on the other hand, the latter deals primarily on the individual as a thinking being.  With this basic difference, it is hereby postulated that cognitive therapy involves a separate field of study rooted on different concepts and strategies.

    Behavioral therapies are primarily founded by Ivan Pavlovs stimulus response and B.F. Skinners classical and operant conditioning among others.  In particular, these approaches relate to the behavioral aspects of human beings.  The target of the various therapeutic modes deal on changing present behavior of clients that would have an effect on the long term behavioral patterns.  They propose that behavioral tendencies shape an individuals thoughts, habits, emotions and other facets of personality which for instance may be learned through modeling (Selligman, 2006).  It is apparent that these theories discount on an individuals distinctive facet  cognition.  It can be implied from behavioral approaches the lack of control of an individual over hisher own behavioral tendencies, the basis of forming behavioral reaction mainly being brought about by external stimulus.

    In cognitive therapy, experts link individual behavior on cognition.  Thoughts and cognition influence the consequent reaction to a particular stimulus or event.  For instance, Albert Elli pointed out that reaction or behavior is influenced by individual perception on things, which perception is influenced by environmental events and happenings.  Thus, environmental events affect perception and perceptioncognition affect behavior.  This explains the differences in the reaction and perception of people on the same experience.  For instance, a child of tender age may have fun playing on fire and smoke, but the same scenario may elicit a different response on an adult.  The latter may relate the fire and smoke to huge fire caused on buildings and structures causing damage.  Thus, in distorted personalities, a person may panic in the mere sight of a small fire people make outside of their houses for outdoor cooking. 

On the other hand, Aaron Beck emphasized the interaction among core beliefs, automatic thoughts, emotions and behaviors (Beck, 1995).  Thus, behavior is not simply a product of a single facet of human personality (which is any event or experience as the stimulus) rather, it is an interaction of these various aspects namely, thoughts, cognition and affect.  As a consequence, cognitive approaches aim to correct distorted beliefs, emotions and perceptions that would consequently result in the alteration of behavioral responses. 
   
Common procedure in cognitive approaches is the utilization of the patients realization of thinking.  The client is subjected to activities that would elicit a thoughtful reaction which requires thinking of an abstract  thinking of thinking itself.  This is one way of forming an understanding that individual perception and consequently, individual behavior are affected by cognitive processes. 

Cognitive approaches emphasize the primacy of cognitions impact on human behavior and personality.  Consequently, the foundation of the study would require an understanding of cognitive processes, the role and activities of the human brain, the signals (stimulus) affecting the neurons and the resulting reactions of the brain transmitted to the different parts of the body that would elicit a particular reaction or behavior.  
   
While the same concept of reinforcements and punishments may be administered in the course of the therapeutic procedure, individual reaction is not solely looked at as simply a response, without more, but a product of the various interactions of the different facets of personality. 
   
Indeed, individual personalities are unique among people.  On the other hand, personality is affected by differences in experiences, perception, level of intelligence, environmental exposures and genetic compositions among others.  Linking this to maladaptive behaviors and personality disorders, it can be implicitly deduced that disorders are brought about by errors in any of the components of the personality.  Consequently, corrective rehabilitation would then aim at looking at the interaction of these elements including cognition.  In this case, the role of cognitive therapy plays an important role.  As a result, the study on cognitive therapy would deal on various aspects different from the subjects of behavioral therapy.  The study of these various aspects would consequently result in the resort of different theories and strategies in the course of the study.  In fact, cognitive therapy requires the clients to think in the abstract, to think about thinking and understanding to alter human behavior and reaction.

Crime can be defined as an international act in violation of the criminal law committed without defense or exercise, and is penalized by the state as a felony or misdemeanor.
Criminal behavior on the other hand is intentional behavior that violates a criminal code. It is termed intentional as it was not accidental or without justification or excuse. For one to be held criminally responsible, he must have known what he or she was doing during the criminal act and must have known that it was wrong. To convict someone of a criminal offense, the prosecution generally must prove that the defendant committed a voluntary act intentionally, or with a guilty state of mind. The statute defining the offense will have to specify what actions and what mental states constitute a particular crime. If a case goes to crime then a jury can convict the defendant only if the prosecutor proves all elements beyond a reasonable doubt. But if a defendant pleads guilty, the prosecutor is spared the burden of doing so, and a conviction is still entered on the record. The spectrum of criminal behavior is extremely wide, ranging from minor traffic violations to even murder.  Many people all round from different socioeconomic groups break laws, just a few become persistent offenders who keep committing many serious crimes of violent nature. These are offenders who demonstrate a habitual, or persistent offending history of doing bad crimes.
The Juvenile Offender Juvenile Delinquency
It is an imprecise, social, clinical and also legal part for a wide range of law and norm violating behavior. The term delinquency itself is behavior against the criminal code committed by an individual who is still a minor.
In some states, the legal definition also includes status offending, which is not a behavior to the adult criminal code but is a behavior prohibited only for juveniles. Such examples as violating curfew laws and running away all qualify as status offenses. Social definitions of delinquency entail a broad part of youthful behaviors which are considered inappropriate, such as petty theft, vandalism, drug abuse, and even sexual promiscuity. Its not a must that the behavior is known to the police and in fact often does not. If it is known to the police it is not unusual for social delinquents to be referred to community social service agencies or to juvenile courts. A juvenile delinquent is a person who commits an act against the criminal code and who is pronounced delinquent by an appropriate court.
The legal term definition is normally restricted to people younger than 18 years of age. A very small number of states give criminal courts rather than juvenile courts. But all states allow juvenile to be tries as adults in criminal courts under certain conditions and for certain offenses. Psychology or psychiatric definitions of delinquency include the symptom based labels of conduct disorder. Conduct disorders  is a diagnostic designation used to represent a group of behaviors shown by habitual misbehavior, e.g. stealing, setting fires, skipping school, running away from home, frequently telling lies.  So as these definition the delinquent may or may not have been taken arrest of due to this behaviors, infect some of the behaviors are even against the criminal law.
The psychological term antisocial behavior is normally kept aside for more serious habitual misconducts and this entails actions which are directly harmful to the well being of other people. Its however to be distinguished from antisocial personality disorder, which is a psychiatric diagnostic label reserved mainly for adults at least 18 years of age who have displayed this conduct disorders as minors and continue to do so well into adulthood.  Many psychologists like to own to the fact that the designations of conduct disorder and antisocial behavior, a growing number also approach the issue of crime and delinquency with a strong emphasis on developmental and cognitive process in a try to understand offending behavior. For example a psychologist named Moffitts tries to look at the developmental theory and provides a sketch for explaining crime from a developmental view. Also Hares concept of criminal psychopath offers an intriguing delineation of the cognitive, emotional and even the bio-psychological factors involved in repetitive, serious offending over a lifetime.
The Nature and extent of Juvenile Offending
Looking at the amount of delinquent behavior (i.e. what is reported and what is not reported to the law enforcement departments) is an unknown area. There is no complete data on the national incidences of juvenile delinquency. But still there are some statistics roughly collected by the law enforcement agencies like courts and even juvenile correctional facilities.
Unlawful acts done by juveniles can usually be divided into 5 categories
Unlawful acts against persons, Unlawful acts against property, Drug offenses, Offenses against the public order, Status offenses.
So as the statistics show, most referrals to juvenile court are for crimes committed against property (45), offenses against the public (21), crimes against persons (23) and drug offenses (11), as was carried out by Hartjen and Gibbons (1989). The first four categories are comparable to offenses committed by adults. Status offenses are acts that only juveniles can commit and can only be adjudicated by a juvenile court. Typical status offenses basically range from simple misbehavior such as violations of curfew, underage drinking, running away from home and truancy, to offenses which are interpreted very subjectively as unruliness and un-governable. The most common status offenses referred by the law enforcement agencies are underage drinking (92), running away from home (40), un-governable (11) and truancy (10).
The Juvenile justice system has supported differential treatment of male and female status offenders. Girls, for instance have been detained for maybe running away from home or incorrigibility when the same behavior in boys has always been ignored. As time passed like as we approached the end of the 20th century, about three times as many girls were detained for status offenses as were the boys (this is according to US Department of justice, 1988). In the recent years as a result of suits brought on behalf of Juveniles, many courts have made it clear that this discriminatory approach is unwarranted. A typical example is that of a status offense of running away which has now dropped to a 3 to 2 ratio, i.e. 3 female taken into custody for every 2 male (Farr and Gibbons, 1990). The biggest proportions of the status offenses that involve females are runaways which are 61. The practice of getting offenders to be confined is also diminishing.
It has been on high discussion that because status offenses lend themselves to so much subjectivity, they should be abolished from the purview of all state juvenile courts. There are some states that have clearly moved in this direction already. On the other side, many states dont call status offenders delinquents but do allow their detention and supervision.
Youth crime data are mostly collected from various sources official records of police arrests, reports from victims e.g. National Victimization Survey, self reports of delinquent involvement, in which national samples of youngsters are asked to fill in questionnaires of their own behavior, juvenile court processing, as normally reported by the national center for juvenile justice, juvenile corrections, as reported in the monograph children in custody, and also the probation and parole statistics which is reported in some governmental publications. The major three last sources of information have a major disadvantage of really underestimating the number of actual offenses since, even more than in the criminal system a high proportion of cases are either undetected or are dismissed before getting to the courts. In simpler terms, because of parental involvement and even community programs many offenders are diverted before going to the court. Also adding to problems of getting statistics on juvenile offenders, this court dockets do not reflect serious offending.
The Uniform Crime Reports
The FBIs UCR first compiled a report in the 1930s. This is the most frequently cited source of the US crime statistics. The UCR is a document that is produced annually it has accounts of crime known to law enforcement agencies all over the country, as well as arrests. Mind you that the UCR does not include in its data conviction data. This is strictly law enforcement information.
A term used by the department of Justice and also reported in the UCR is clearance rate, this refers to the proportion of reported crimes that have been dealt with and solved. According to the FBI, they consider a crime cleared when at least one person is arrested, charged with the commission of an offense and also turned to the court for prosecution. For Juveniles, a clearance by arrest is recorded when an offender is cited to appear in a juvenile court or before other juvenile authorities. Crimes may be cleared also by certain exceptional means, for example when circumstances outside the control of law enforcement eliminate the possibility of making an arrest.
Arrests for certain juvenile crimes, especially violent crimes, peaks in 1994 and have been decreasing slowly since then. After over a decade of increases, homicides by juveniles dropped in 2001 by 62 (and for adults it decreased by 29)
Youngsters who engage in habitual stealing even at very elementary levels of schooling also were demonstrating other behaviors such as lying, bullying and even frequent dishonesty.
Developmental Theory
A research conducted by some psychologists show that a very helpful way to understand delinquency is to view it as developing along at least 2 paths of development (Hartjen and Gibbons, 1989). On one path a child is seen developing a lifelong trajectory of delinquency and crime at a very tender age, this is most probably at around 3 or even younger. Its reported that these individuals show changing manifestations of having antisocial behavior. You can realize biting and hitting at the age of 4, shoplifting and truancy at the age of 10, selling drugs and even stealing cars at the age of 16, robbery and raping at the age of 22 and fraud and child abuse at the age of 30. These individuals who can also be termed as life course persistent (LCP) offenders continue their antisocial ways across all kinds of situations. Many of these LCP offenders exhibit neurological problems during their childhood, such as very difficult temperaments as infants, hyperactivity as children and also learning problems in school years.
LCP offenders commit a wide range of violent crimes over their lifetimes. Mostly LCPs as children miss opportunities to acquire and practice pro-social skills at all stages of their development. This is partially as a result of the rejection and avoidance by their childhood peers also because their parents and guardians become frustrated and give up on them.
The great numbers of delinquents are those who start offending during their adolescent times and stop offending at around 18 years. In reality these adolescent delinquent behaviors arise from peers and social environmental reasons. This offending is temporal. These adolescents are labeled as Adolescent Limited (AL). Research shows that a good number of adolescents are involved in forms of antisocial behavior during their teens but this antisocial behavior stops as they approach the responsibilities of young adulthood.    
Attention DeficitHyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
The term ADHD entails a wide variety of terms usually used in mental and educational contexts like minimum brain dysfunction (MBD) or hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder (ADD), or hyperactive-impulsive attention (ADHD). All these terms refer basically to 3 central behaviors
Excessive motor activity (one who cannot sit still heshe fidgets often)
Impulsivity (acts before thinking)
Inattention (does not seem to listen) (Farr and Gibbons, 1990).
The Criminal Psychopath
The term psychopath is used to describe a person who shows a discernible cluster of psychological, interpersonal and neuropsychological features that distinguish himher from the population in general. Psychopath may or may not engage in habitual criminal behavior. Even many of them do not have any history of serious antisocial behavior and also many serious offenders are not necessarily psychopaths. As a group they usually tend to be dominant, manipulative individuals characterized by an impulsive, risk taking and antisocial life style.
General Behavioral Characteristics of Psychopaths
It is identified by Cleckly (1941) the 10 cardinal behavioral features characteristic of the true psychopath (Farr and Gibbons, 1990).
Selfishness (also called egocentricity), An inability to love or real affection to other beings, Frequent deceitfulness or lying, Lack of guilt no matter how cruel the behavior is, Callousness or a lack of empathy, Low anxiety proneness, Poor judgment and failure to learn from experience, Superficial charm, Failure to follow any life plan, Cycle of unreliability.
The actions of a psychopath are driven by an excessive neuropsychological need for thrills and excitement. Its usual to realize that psychopaths are drawn to such interests as race car driving, skydiving and motorcycle stunts.
Antisocial Personality Disorder and psychopathy
Antisocial personality disorder is used to summarize many of the same features found in the criminal psychopath.  Antisocial personality disorders refer specifically to a person who shows a pervasive pattern of disregard and violates the rights of others that actually begins in childhood and continues to adulthood.
Many serious assaults committed by non-psychopaths occurred during domestic disputes. On the other hand this pattern of violence is not usual in criminal psychopaths. Criminal psychopaths engage in violence frequently as a form of revenge or retribution. Many of the attacks seen by non-psychopaths are against women that they know well of while any of the attacks made by psychopaths are against men who are total strangers. Psychopaths re-offend faster and violate parole sooner and also commit more institutional violence than non-psychopaths.

Anti social personality disorder refers to a mental and behavioral disorder that compels the victim to persistently disregard and violate the rights of others (Cole  Dodge, 1998). This usually begins during childhood or early teenage and continues through adulthood. In most cases, individuals with this disorder get in trouble with the law enforcement agencies because of violation of the law. The interviewee, Tyler Murphy asserts this by indicating that he has been in jail for long periods of time because of stealing, fighting, drinking, setting fire to an abandoned house and breaking and entering. Medical statistics indicate that currently, approximately one in forty seven US citizens suffers from this disorder (Torgersen et al, 2007). This translates in to 2.1 or 5.7 million US citizens. Further, the statistics show that men are four times more likely to develop the disorder than women. With regard to the familial pattern, Torgersen (2007) contends that the disorder is more likely to affect the first-degree biological relatives of persons with the disorder than the entire population.
Causes
According to Coid (2003), the exact cause of anti social personality disorder is still unknown. However, researchers have developed various theories that attempt to explain the causes and seemingly, this condition is contributed to by various augmenting factors. Primarily, biological traits, dysfunctional family environments and various other environmental factors have been cited to contribute significantly to its development (Campell et al, 1995 Hill  Maughan, 2001).
A theory suggested by Campell et al (1995) asserts that abnormal development of the central nervous system causes ASP. Symptoms of this condition are manifested through different disorders that include hyperactivity, consistent bedwetting and learning disorders. Further, emergent studies show that smoking during pregnancy increases the probability of the offspring developing anti social personality disorder. According to this school of thought, smoking lowers the oxygen levels that the fetus is exposed to. This then results in to subtle brain injury that affects its behavioral development.
The theory presented by Borduin (1999) asserts that individuals suffering from ASP require an increase in sensory input to enable their brain to function normally. This presumption is supported by the evidence that anti social individuals show decreased amplitude on specific brain measures, have low skin conductance and exhibit low resting pulse rates. This study also ascertains that persons whose arousal is chronically low are likely to opt for potentially dangerous and or risky behaviors in an attempt to raise their arousal to maximum levels for satisfaction of their internal craving for excitement.
This contention has been supported by brain imaging studies that confirm that abnormal functioning of the brain contributes to anti social behavior (Borduin, 1999). In addition, serotonin has also been linked to aggressive and impulsive behavior. Basically, the prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes are instrumental in regulating a persons mood and general behavior. In his review, Scotts et al (2001) suggests that aggression and impulsive behavior stem from abnormal levels of serotonin in the specific brain regions.
Furthermore, Lerner and Steinberg (2003) consider the home and social environment to contribute significantly to the development of anti social personality disorder. According to this, parents with antisocial children often exhibit behavioral constraints themselves. A survey conducted in US in 2008 indicates that parents of delinquent children were in most instances violent, alcoholic and or engage in crime (Caspi, 2008). This contention is also ascertained by Tyler who asserts that his father had a violent temper and engaged in heavy drinking. In addition, he affirms that his sister has an anti social personal behavior too. As such, it can be ascertained that the problem was inherited from their father who seemingly suffered from anti social personality behavior.
In his study, Borum et al (2000) indicates that in most instances, the homes of persons affected by anti social personality behavior are disrupted by incidences of divorce, separation or absence of one parent. This environment does not give the children a chance to engage in constructive activities and establish viable relations. In some cases, the children are taken to foster homes or are given up for adoption. In their consultative review, Farrington and Coid (2003) cite the environment provided in foster or adoption homes to contribute to anti social behavior. This is because such environments deprive a child of the critical emotional bond during his or her childhood. This has the capacity to damage the childs ability to establish trusting and intimate relationships that are essential for appropriate development of behavior. It is because of the fact that in most cases, such children are mobile as they are forced to be under the care of several care givers before their final adoption. This disrupts their ability to establish lasting and trusting attachments with specific adults as they are exposed to varying psychological environments.
In addition, Macmillan (2000) reports that inappropriate and erratic modes of discipline also contribute to the development of anti social personality disorders in children. Tyler asserts this by indicating that the parents used to punish him and make him do extra chores as a mode of punishment to his maladaptive behavior. Often, the parents of these children scrutinize the behavior of the children, set stringent rules and ensure that the rules are obeyed accordingly. In addition, they tend to watch their children, frequently find out about their whereabouts and in most cases steer them from their troubled playmates.
On the other hand, Macmillan (2000) postulates that anti social parents usually lack the vital motivation to watch their children. This is compounded by the situation of their broken homes that is characterized by absent parents and lack of good supervision. Further, anti socials that happen to grow up in large families are often accorded minimal supervision and attention. Ultimately, this undermines their ability to develop appropriate and socially acceptable behavior.
In their review, Loeber and Loeber (2002) lament that troubled homes have a plethora of negative effects to the affected children. Essentially, they enter adulthood with emotional injuries that are characterized by self absorption and indifference to others. This condition is attributable to their inability to establish strong emotional bonds. These children also lack consistent discipline that culminates in little regard for societal rules and lack of gratification. The troubled home environment deprives the child of role models. As such, she learns to employ aggression in conflict resolution. This greatly inhibits the development of critical virtues like concern and empathy for others.
Furthermore, Campell et al (1995) indicate that the aggressive and anti social children tend to choose the company of children with similar disorders as playmates. This pattern of association develops during elementary education where children seek to belong to a certain social group. It is contended that children with aggressive behaviors are usually rejected by their peers. This makes them feel outcast and drives them to form social bonds with other children that have similar behavior. This situation is exemplified by Tyler who indicates that in most instances, he used to associate himself with older kids and considered his age mates stupid ad annoying and only talked to them when he wanted to start a fight or take their money. Macmillan (2000) indicates that the older company rewards and encourages the aggression of children with anti social personality disorders. In the long run, such associations culminate in gang membership.
In his survey, Caspi (2008) argues that child abuse is also linked to antisocial personality disorder. Statistics indicate that persons with this disorder are more likely to have experienced child abuse than their counterparts. According to researchers views, these persons grow up with violent parents and in neglectful homes. As such, abusive behavior is learnt by the children, who then pass it on to their children in adulthood. Likewise, Scotts et al (2001) points out that early abuse is harmful as it leads to brain injury. In addition, traumatic events reportedly disrupt the development of the nervous system of the child. Notably, this trend continues through teenage years and early adulthood. In particular, traumatic events such as war and conflicts have been reported to have adverse effects on the psychological wellbeing of the populations. Furthermore, they deprive the society of relevant resources and sources of livelihood that then affects the nutritional wellbeing. In this respect, Lerner and Steinberg (2003) posit that exposure to malnutrition during the early sages of life contributes to ASP.
In his study, Scotts et al (2001) indicates that the cultural perceptions are also linked to anti social personality disorder. In particular, the various cultural beliefs and practices, customs, values, attitudes and traditions have been identified to influence the development of ASP in various ways. For instance, cultural attitudes towards certain sex of the children contribute to a feeling of rejection that then leads to development of the disorder.
In contrast, positive cultural perceptions of certain children inhibit the development of the disorder as they feel secure and cared for by the entire society. In this respect, it can be argued that in most traditional societies, children born out of wedlock are often disregarded by the entire society and treated as outcasts. Comparatively, their legitimate counterparts are held in high regard and accorded full support during growth. In addition, some cultural aspects that reinforce and promote domestic violence, sexual promiscuity, chemical dependence and substance abuse and other types of criminal behavior often increase the prevalence of ASP in the respective societies.
The social class structure is also cited by Cole and Dodge (1998) to influence personality disorders. Research evidence from the Latino community indicates that social class determines the type of parenting style and attitudes that the parents assume towards their children (Cole  Dodge, 1998). Essentially, parents from the lower class are more likely to have been rejected by their guardians or parents than their counterparts from a higher social class. In addition, the study postulates that the parents from a lower socio economic class tend to be emotionally colder and less responsive to the emotional needs of their children. In most cases, they fail to demonstrate their affection towards their children and even reject them in extreme cases.
From the above considerations, it can be ascertained that anti social personality disorder is contributed to by different genetic, social, cultural and environmental factors that interplay to culminate in this complex condition. Although a distinct cause has not been identified, psychological studies contend that the dysfunctional nature of the social, psychological and physical environments contribute significantly to its development. While these environments can be amended to enhance the healing of affected individuals, biological and genetic factors can not be easily manipulated. In stead, they make the specific individuals vulnerable to the development of the behavior.
Diagnosis
For the diagnosis of this disorder to be given, the affected person needs to be at least eighteen years. In addition, this individual needs to have had some symptoms of personality disorder such as delinquency before the age of fifteen years. Tyler indicates that he was diagnosed for this disorder during his childhood, although he had been considered a delinquent when he was still young. Basically, the anti social personality disorder can only be diagnosed when the specific behaviors become distressing, consistent or disabling. In addition, the DSM manual indicates that diagnosis is done if the anti social behavior does not exclusively occur during a manic episode or in the course of schizophrenia.
Essentially, three or more of these is requisite rebellion to social norms and failure to assume lawful behavior that is manifested through repeated engagement in actions that can lead to arrests deceitfulness that is indicated by persistent use of alliances, lying and conning other people for reasons of personal pleasure or personal profit impulsivity or inability to plan ahead irritability and aggression that is manifested through frequent assaults or physical fights reckless disregard for security of oneself and others consistent irresponsibility that is manifested through inability to honor financial obligations and sustain consistent work behavior and lack of remorse that is exhibited through indifference to rationalizing having hurt, stolen or mistreated others.
Notably, Tyler exhibited these symptoms as he dropped out of school because of his tendency to make trouble and fight wit hid peers. In addition, he indicates that he used to take money from his age mates whom he considered stupid and annoying. He asserts that currently, he still gets in to fights with his friends. In addition, he shows that he can not stand his co workers and boss in employment. Presently, he is satisfied with working at a construction because of the fact that he is paid cash. According to Cole and Dodge (1998), this can be a clear indication of financial irresponsibility.
Studies indicate that these disorders are in most instances observed in children and adolescents. As such, the disorder can only be diagnosed of the behaviors are manifested by adults.
Prevention, Intervention and Management
Antisocial personality disorders have far reaching implications on the functioning of an individual and the society in general. Angold et al (1999) refer to it as a social handicap that can not be treated easily. Prevention is therefore imperative to avoid incidences of mortality, improve the health and productivity of the population as well as save resources that are employed in management of the same.
To begin with, there is need for initiation of education programs that are geared towards informing the public about the problem. This can be achieved through incorporation of the concept of behavioral constraints in the curriculum of elementary schools. Notably, most youth offenders develop the disorder while in schools and therefore, knowledge about the same would enable them to devise viable measures and prevent the development of deviant behavior. Since teachers understand the behavioral facets of their students, Farrington and Coid (2003) argue that they can be used to identify the same for enrollment in youth justice system. Alternatively, special education programs can be introduced as mainstream schools to cater for the needs of children with behavioral disorders. The curriculum of such schools is then customized to meet the specific needs of these children.
Further, Meltzer et al (2000) points out that the health and social services department can be used to disseminate vital information to the public about the disorder. Specific measures in this regard include distributing leaflets containing vital information about personality disorder to the members of the public that seek medical attention. In addition, the government can introduce screening tools in the heath facilities. These can be used to screen all individuals that seek the medical care and introduce the identified victims to relevant programs. In addition, Coid (2003) shows that the media can also be employed in creating public awareness about the problem. In this respect, health based programs that are aired by the media can address specific aspects of antisocial personality disorders. In his study, Scotts et al (2001) contends that since the media highly influences the decisions that are made by the population, such measures would go a long way in encouraging the affected population to seek timely medication.
Further, the government can liaise with the community workers to introduce community outreach programs in various communities. These can work in conjunction with the community members to raise awareness about the problem and encourage the affected individuals to seek timely medical attention. During such initiatives, it is important to employ persons from the specific population in order to enhance sustainability of the projects.
Hill and Maughan (2001) indicate that family based therapy can also be instrumental in managing the behavioral disorder. This therapy aims at changing the patterns of communication that are employed at the family level in order to enhance adaptation of the members to the problem. Essentially, it seeks to modify the perception of the family members and enable them to approach the anti social behavior from a functional perspective. The therapist basically identifies the dependencies and the family problems that stem from the antisocial behavior. This identification according to Hill and Maughan (2001) provides an impetus for change.
In instances where the youth and children in the family are affected with the anti social problem, Scotts et al (2001) suggests that parent training is essential. This measure is based on the assumption that in most cases, the maladaptive behaviors that children develop are caused by poor interactions between the child and the parents. However, emergent studies note that this situation is bidirectional and in some cases, children influence their parents to refrain from sustainable interactions (Caspi, 2008). In this respect, psychological studies indicate that in certain instances, children purposely assume anti social behaviors to prompt unhealthy interactions from the parents. Parent training provides the parents with ideal procedures and measures that can be undertaken to alter the anti social behavior of the child in the home environment. The main aim of such programs is to reduce deviance and enhance pro social behavior. However, Caspi (2008) shows that this approach is not effective for chronic cases that often characterize the adolescents. As such, he asserts that it should be employed when dealing with young children whose anti social personality disorders are not yet established.
Borum et al (2000) also indicates that the behavioral constraint can be addressed through cognitive problem-solving skills training. This is based on the realization that most of the persons that are affected by anti social personality disorder, and especially aggression, exhibit various deficiencies and distortions in their thinking process. In particular, they often have difficulties in generating viable alternative solutions to various interpersonal problems, lack the ability to understand the feelings of others and tend to attribute hostility to other people in ambiguous situations.
Essentially, problem solving skills training aims at developing interpersonal problem solving skills. These enable the affected persons to approach the problems in a more structural manner. In particular, they are equipped with vital skills that enable them to generate various solutions to the interpersonal problems. In addition, they are encouraged to develop social behaviors that are vital for sustainable social interactions.
Interventions also need to focus on anger management and coping strategies (Farrington  Coid, 2003). This is derived from the understanding and appreciation that antisocial persons usually have distorted perceptions of social problems and tend to employ more aggressive solutions when addressing the problems. Specific activities in this respect include anger reducing self talk, generation of multiple solutions to problems and management of anger arousal. Since its inception, this strategy has been effective in management of anti social behavioral constraints among the youths in high schools. Scotts et al (2001) ascertains that its employment in these settings reduced the frequency of suspensions and exclusions of students from schools in the UK.
Pharmacological treatments are also widely employed in the management of anti social personality disorders. However, Macmillan (2000) indicates that in order for them to be effective, they should be used in combination with behavioral therapies. To begin with, stimulants like dexamphetamine are known to reduce the degree of hyperactive behavior as well as aggression and other anti social behaviors. In addition, medical studies ascertain that lithium is effective in preventing severe episodic aggression especially in children (Scotts et al, 2001).
Further, anticonvulsants like carbamazepine have been used for a long time by adolescents that exhibit anti social behavior. In particular Campell et al (1995) indicates that they control neural over activity. Finally, neuroleptics have been effectively used over time to reduce obsessive behaviors in children and adolescents. Scotts et al (2001) indicate that they can also be used to reduce aggression in children that have intellectual impairment. However, these should be used sparingly for adolescents as they have a sedative effect that can affect their learning ability. Tyler indicates that medical treatment helped him to feel less depressed and anxious. Currently, he still uses medical treatment as a sole mode of managing his behavioral disorder.
Apart from preventive and curative measures, maintenance strategies play a critical role in reducing the severity of the problem. In particular, Scotts et al (2001) asserts that these are instrumental in reducing the disabilities that culminate from the consequences of the disorder. The identified strategies include prevention of recurrence and prevention of comorbid disorders and other forms of complications. Measures that seek to prevent the recurrence of the problem include educating the affected individuals about the early signs and symptoms of the relapse. This is important as it makes the person to be aware of the symptoms and enable the same to seek medical attention in a timely manner. Angold et al (1999) also indicates that regular medical check ups are important as they enable the persons to take timely measures to prevent relapses.
With regard to prevention of comorbid disorders, Angold et al (1999) ascertains that anti social personality behaviors are related to different comorbid problems with the most common being substance abuse and depression. Notably, anti social personality disorders encourages the affected individuals to engage in drug and substance abuse in order to experience temporary relief from this problem. This leads to other social problems like stealing in order to get finances for the substances. To counter this, different therapies like cognitive and behavioral therapies and family therapies are use to reduce the occurrence of negative thoughts and associated abusive behaviors.
In addition, Borum et al (2000) indicate that participation is self help groups is instrumental in enabling the affected person to cope with the problem accordingly. These meetings often seek to involve the individuals in group therapy. In addition, they enable the individual to have a chance to benefit from follow up or after care programs. The peers in the group contexts also support the recovering members and help them to realize the negative implications of substance abuse. Tyler affirms this by appreciating the fact that therapy helped him solve his anger problems and other associated disorders.
These persons also suffer from depression and often experience suicidal feelings. In this regard, Angold et al (1999) ascertain that anti social behavior is associated with different emotional disorders like post traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety disorders. Tyler affirms this by indicating that in some instances, he experiences suicidal feelings because of the feeling that persons around him get on his nerves. In order to counter feelings of self harm, it is contended that group therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy should be employed.