Nurturing for Careers in Drug Use and Crime: Conduct Norms for Children and Juveniles in Crack-Using Households

Abstract

A very sizable proportion of juvenile delinquents and adult criminals come from backgrounds and family kin systems having deviant parents or kin. This paper provides a focus upon the child-rearing practices directly observed by trained ethnographer during a case study of one highly criminal, drugusing household/kin network. The concrete expectations (and actual practices)-called conduct norms-with which the household adults respond to (or "nurture") children and juveniles are delineated. While children are taught to "pay attention" to what adults do, adults typically model various deviant activities and rarely engage in conventional behaviors. Drug-using, and especially crack-using, men and women are expected not to raise (or financially support) children born to them; other kin expect to raise children of such unions. Children are not expected, nor able, to develop strong affective bonds with any household adults, and receive little or no psychological parenting.

Residential Treatment for Parents and Their Children: The Village Experience

“…Researchers Johnson, Dunlap, and Maher (1998) describe an exchange that echoes many observed over the years by FIT staff: The caregiver of a 6- or 7-year-old commands, “Lock the door!” The boy fumbles with the chain locks and dead-bolts. As he puzzles over what to do, the grandmother and other adults in the room, impatient and increasingly angry, begin to shout at him, calling him “Stupid,” among other names.…”

Growing up in a Violent Society: Longitudinal Predictors of Violence in Colombian Adolescents

“…Another known familial risk factor for antisocial and violent behavior is the use of illicit drugs within the family environment (Johnson et al 1998;Moss et al 2002). Drug use by either parents or siblings may provide the adolescent with models and support for socially deviant behavior.…”

Use of Crack and Other Drugs Among Children and Adolescents and Its Impact on the Family Environment: An Integrative Literature Review

“…Alcohol and tobacco are the drugs the relatives use more commonly, as their use is considered a widely accepted sociocultural phenomenon in some cultures. 16,22,29,32 Identifying the risk factors in the children and adolescents is an important task, as the intervention should concentrate on these individuals' interactions with the environment they are inserted in and with the behavior of other family members, a relevant fact in the planning and elaboration of protection strategies, according to the results highlighted in studies 10 and 11. [24][25] Therefore, understanding the family environment and its relation with the consumption of crack and other drugs among children and adolescents is fundamental, as the family context should be considered an environment that acts as a protective and risk factor.…”

“…Studies 15 and 22 reveal that the behavior and the family environment, with its standards and conducts towards the use of crack and other drugs, can contribute for its members to turn into young people and adults with antisocial behavior, delinquents, drug users, prostitutes, with a high risk of getting into criminal life and with few chances of becoming adults resilient to the adversities of life. 29,36 The family members' quality of life can also be subject to immeasurable consequences. Study 4 18 assessed the quality of life among drug users and their relatives in comparison to non-users, using a validated questionnaire to assess the score.…”