Compare and contrast Moffitt's Developmental Theory with Patterson's Coercion Theory

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• Both are theories focusing primarily on adolescents and how they develop antisocial behavior.
• Both suggest that children who display antisocial behavior early—as in pre-school years—are at greater risk of serious offending as adolescents. However, both also recognize a late-onset developmental stage that may be accompanied by serious offending.
• Both concentrate on development of the antisocial behavior of the adolescent from an individual perspective. However, both do consider social factors, such as the influence of peers.
• Both take into consideration an accumulation of risk factors in the child's life.
• Both focus primarily on male adolescents, although female adolescents are not ignored.
• Moffitt's is the most widely known and researched.
• Her initial theory proposed two main developmental paths, resulting in the adolescent limited offender and the life-course-persistent offender. Additional research suggested more paths.
• Patterson's theory is a family-oriented one; parents set the stage for the child's ultimate antisocial behavior by failure to monitor their children's activities properly and by promoting coercive interactions within the family. The child then transfers these coercive tactics to the outside world, such as in interactions with peers.
• Patterson's theory give more attention to delinquency in girls than does Moffitt's, suggesting that they may be less antisocial because parents are less likely to use coercive tactics. Girls are also less likely than boys to be coercive with peers, at least until adolescence. Therefore, girls are more likely to display late-onset delinquency.
• Patterson's theory is closely associated with family treatment programs, in which parenting skills are emphasized, in an effort to reduce coercion as a tactic for solving problems both within and outside the family.