Risk factors for adult male criminality in Colombia

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to establish, in Colombia, the importance of factors alleged to be causes or correlates of adult criminality according to the published literature from other countries. METHODS: A comparison was made of arrested male offenders from ages 18 to 30 (n = 223) and similar community controls (n = 222) selected from five cities in Colombia as to their family background, exposure to abuse, family stressors, perceived care and history of childhood disruptive behaviour problems. RESULTS: Compared with neighbourhood controls from similar social classes, offenders were significantly more likely to report having had parents with less education, a mother under the age of 18 or over the age of 35 at time of birth, family members involved in crime, experiencing extreme economic deprivation, parental absence, family conflict, severe punishments, physical abuse, and maternal unavailability, rejection and lack of supervision. Prevalence of childhood disruptive behaviour problems was similar among offenders and controls. These findings appear to be independent of economic status, family size or type, birth order, or primary caregiver. Although the independent contribution of most of these factors is small, once all others have been controlled for, their cumulative effect is strong. CONCLUSIONS: The findings obtained in this Latin American setting do not support the generalized view that adult antisocial behaviour is necessarily preceded by a history of childhood behaviour problems. However, they do add evidence for the importance of family factors in the risk for adult criminality.

The Cumulative Disadvantages of Socially Toxic Family Environments: A Comparison of Early Life Experiences of Incarcerated Men and University Students

“…The thesis here suggests that cumulative disadvantage increases over time via exposure to the external risk factors that predominate in the early years (Klevens et al, 2001). The family of origin is the critical nexus within which youngsters learn through direct observation, as well as internalize cultural scripts that reinforce maladaptive behaviors and may reduce the probability of establishing stable, non-criminal relationships (Bandura, 1977;Cairns and Cairns, 1994;Foster and Hagan, 2007;Gilgun, 1996).…”

“…The main thesis suggests that no single factor alone always or necessarily increases the probability of violent criminal offending. Rather, as Klevens et al (2001) have shown, varying combinations of risk factors exacerbate cumulative disadvantages that are linked to the long-term propensity for violent criminal outcomes. The study examines retroactively the extent to which combinations of risk factors produce socially toxic family environments and serve as distal precursors to violent criminality in adulthood (see Murray, et al, 2010).…”

“…Individual reconstructions of their lived experiences are fraught with problems (e.g., selective memory, accuracy), but these were minimized as much as possible by asking quite specific questions in a consistent fashion for each of three distinct time periods and structured as a life history (Klevens et al, 2001). The inmate interviews were supplemented further with cross-referencing to case file information to ensure greater accuracy.…”

“…These same issues have been shown to have adverse impacts on children in the comparative research (e.g., Farrington, Ttofi and Piquero, 2016;Maldonado-Molina, et al, 2009). For example, exposure to many of the same factors were parallel predictors in a study of adult male criminality in Colombia (Klevens et al, 2001). More important, that same study confirmed that the odds ratios for criminality jumped dramatically -by a factor of more than eight -among those who reported any combination of at least three or more of the risk factors.…”

La otra transición epidemiológica: hitos en el desarrollo de la epidemiología de los factores de riesgo en Colombia

“…Estas experiencias exitosas fueron las que permitieron la creación del Centro de Investigación para el Estudio y Prevención de la Violencia (CISALVA) (86)(87)(88)(89)(90)(91)(92)(93)(94)(95). Los estudios realizados en Cali, así como en otras ciudades del país principalmente por Klevens y colaboradores (85)(86)(87)(88), son considerados ahora como hitos de la epidemiología de la violencia en Colombia.…”