What are some of the assumptions made by developmental and life course theorists, and what kind of crimes do these theories attempt to explain?

What will be an ideal response?


Developmental and life course theorists make no strict assumptions about human nature and view it as a product of devel¬opment or an interaction among biological, psychological, and social factors. Like most other contemporary theories, the developmental and life course theories tend to be characterized by soft deter¬minism, or, as some theorists have called it, indeterminism developmental and life course theories tend to be based on a consensus view of society as they focus on explaining acts that most would agree should be illegal. The scope of developmental and life course theories is somewhat limited as they focus primarily on explaining crime that is committed by rather serious offenders. Victimless crimes, such as drug use, are important, but these types of acts are of little interest if they do not occur alongside other, more serious forms of crime (e.g., theft, assault, burglary, and robbery).

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What will be an ideal response?

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a. True b. False

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According to the text, results of ______ can vary across time and space.

a. implementation b. evaluation c. adoption d. agenda formation

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