Honors Theses

Date of Award

Spring 5-7-2022

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Political Science

First Advisor

Brian Boutwell

Second Advisor

Abigail Novak

Third Advisor

Miles Armaly

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Childhood abuse and neglect are highly deleterious experiences that a number of children continue to encounter. The purpose of the current discussion is to examine the impact of childhood abuse and neglect on the growth and development of self-control in early childhood. In service of this goal, several methods were employed, including a review of the historical and current research on the development of self-control. In addition to this, specific scientific theories and their advancements were analyzed to provide further insight into the connection between poor impulse regulation (and decision-making) and downstream linkages with criminal offending. Perhaps not surprisingly, evidence continues to accumulate suggesting that childhood abuse and neglect exerts a negative influence on the development of self-control, which has consistently emerged as a causal factor in the genesis of criminal offending. Several recommendations are made in the concluding chapter to address gaps in the current knowledge when it comes to the connection between low self-control from exposure to adverse childhood experiences and criminal offending.

Comments

D'Andre Walker was a fourth reader for this research.

Accessibility Status

Searchable text

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.