Sasha Evans asks How does early attachment effect the likelihood of becoming a criminal?

How does early attachment effect the likelihood of becoming a criminal?

 

According to most psychologists studying early attachment, it is a very important factor in the type of person they will be when they grow up. Bowlby (1969, 1988) had a theory of ‘Maternal Deprivation’ about the importance of early attachment. He believed that babies are born with an innate need to attach to a primary caregiver and suggested that if there is a failure to initiate this attachment then there would be serious negative consequences, which he referred to as ‘maternal deprivation’. There is a critical period in which this attachment needs to be formed and not broken before the consequences become irreversible and the child has lifelong consequences from not having that primary bond. This critical period is in the first two years of the child’s life, but then after the age of 5 the consequences become irreversible. Some of these irreversible consequences could be increased aggression, decreased intelligence and affectionless psychopathy, which is where someone is not able to show any affection or concern for others, which can be a trait in criminals or murderers. Bowlby also suggested that everybody has an ‘internal working model’ which represents someone’s understanding for the world, the self, and others. This guides future behaviours and how the person interacts with others, and their future relationships. Bowlby conducted a study to test maternal deprivation and higher chances of juvenile delinquency, emotional difficulties, and antisocial behaviours.

He studied 88 children over three years in a child guidance clinic through an opportunity sample, and 44 of them were juvenile thieves to test whether they had experienced maternal deprivation before the age of 5. He used 44 juvenile delinquents who had been referred to him for stealing as well as another group of 44 children who could act as a control group alongside the study. His aim was to investigate the long-term effects of maternal deprivation on people to see whether the delinquents have suffered deprivation. He did the study between 1936 and 1939 on 88 children that were selected from the clinic in which he worked. He tested their IQ tested by psychologist who also assessed the child’s emotional attitude to the testing, and at the same time a social worker was testing a parent to record details of the child’s early life (periods of separation), and separate reports were made on each. Bowlby then conducted an initial interview with the child and the parent.

 

More than half of the juvenile thieves had been separated from their mothers before the age of 5 for no longer than 6 months, but in the control group only two of them had. He also found that 14 of the juvenile delinquents (32%) showed ‘affectionless psychopathy’, whereas none of the control group showed this. He also found that 86% of the ‘affectionless psychopaths’ had experienced long periods of maternal separation before the age of 5, but only two from the control group had also experienced this prolonged separation. This concludes that early attachment issues and prolonged separation from the primary attachment figure can increase the chances of being an ‘affectionless psychopath’ and increase the chances of committing a crime. It is also worth noting that serial killers who have been captured in the 20th century have reported having a rough childhood where they were abused, or they did not have a strong or primary attachment with their mother or father. For example, Mitchell and Aamodt (2005) studied many serial killers and have noticed that a large amount of them suffered child abuse and trauma. Several studies have also focused on some of the most well-known cases of serial killers, like Ed Gein and John Wayne Gacy who were physically and verbally abused as children.

This shows that someone’s internal working model and the quality of attachments are very important in determining how somebody behaves once they are older and relationships they have with people. This is why the juvenile delinquents had criminal convictions for stealing, and possibly a factor in why the serial killers reached the point of killing people. It is therefore crucial for a child to have good attachments in early childhood so that they do not grow up to become a criminal or suffer with mental health problems later in life.