Anti-social behaviour
"[4] For example, David Farrington, a British criminologist and forensic psychologist, stated that teenagers can exhibit anti-social behaviour by engaging in various amounts of wrongdoings such as stealing, vandalism, sexual promiscuity, excessive smoking, heavy drinking, confrontations with parents, and gambling.
Alongside these issues one can be predisposed or more inclined to develop such behaviour due to one's genetics, neurobiological and environmental stressors in the prenatal stage of one's life, through the early childhood years.
[7] Genetic factors include abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex of the brain while neurobiological risk include maternal drug use during pregnancy, birth complications, low birth weight, prenatal brain damage, traumatic head injury, and chronic illness.
[9] It has been suggested that individuals with intellectual disabilities have higher tendencies to display anti-social behaviours, but this may be related to social deprivation and mental health problems.
Infants may act in seemingly anti-social ways and yet be generally accepted as too young to know the difference before the age of four or five.
[13] There are strong statistical relationships that show this significant association between childhood aggressiveness and anti-social behaviours.
Some reviews have found strong correlations between aggression and the viewing of violent media,[14] while others find little evidence to support their case.
[2] Studies have found that there is a link between antisocial behaviour and increased amygdala activity specifically centered around facial expressions that are based in anger.
This research focuses on the fact that the symptom of over reactivity to perceived threats that comes with antisocial behaviour may be from this increase in amygdala activity.
The risk of early adulthood criminal conviction increased by nearly 30 percent with each hour children spent watching TV on an average weekend.
[20] Several factors are considered as direct or indirect causes of developing anti-social behaviour in children.
[21] Children's perinatal risk, temperament, intelligence, nutrition level, and interaction with parents or caregivers can influence their behaviours.
[24] Due to their impulsivity, their inability to form trusting relationships and their nature of blaming others when a situation arises,[25] individuals with particularly aggressive anti-social behaviours tend to have maladaptive social cognitions, including hostile attribution bias, which lead to negative behavioural outcomes.
[26] Problem-solving skills training (PSST) is a type of CBT that aims to recognize and correct how an individual thinks and consequently behaves in social environments.
[25] Moreover, therapists should support and motivate individuals to practice the new skills and behaviours in environments and contexts where the conflicts would naturally occur to observe the effects of CBT.
[28] First Step to Success is an early intervention for Kindergarten to 3rd grade children who are demonstrating antisocial behaviours.
Overall, First Steps takes about 3 months to implement, requires minimal time from parent(s) and teachers and has shown empirically positive results in increasing prosocial behaviour in at-risk children.
[31] It is most effective when specific issues are being discussed with individuals with anti-social behaviours, rather than a broad general concept.
This type of therapy works well with individuals who are at a mild to moderate stage of anti-social behaviour since they still have some sense of responsibility regarding their own problems.
Antisocial personality disorder can only be diagnosed when a pattern of anti-social behaviour began being noticeable during childhood and/or early teens and remained stable and consistent across time and context.
[37] In the official DSM IV-TR for ASPD, it is specified that the anti-social behaviour has to occur outside of time frames surrounding traumatic life events or manic episodes (if the individual is diagnosed with another mental disorder).
Law breaking behaviour in which the individuals are putting themselves or others at risk is considered anti-social even if it is not consistent or stable (examples: speeding, use of drugs, getting in physical conflict).
[37] Individuals who begin getting in trouble with the law (in more than one area) at an abnormally early age (around 15)[38] and keep recurrently doing so in adulthood may be suspected of having ASPD.
The orders, introduced in the United Kingdom by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998,[46] were designed to criminalize minor incidents that would not have warranted prosecution before.
In a survey conducted by University College London during May 2006, the UK was thought by respondents to be Europe's worst country for anti-social behaviour, with 76% believing Britain had a "big or moderate problem".
A survey was conducted in 1996 in New South Wales, Australia, of 441, 234 secondary school students in years 7 to 12 about their involvement in anti-social activities.
38.6% reported intentionally damaging or destroying someone else's property, 22.8% admitted to having received or selling stolen goods and close to 40% confessed to attacking someone with the idea of hurting them.
The study established how many members felt that other people would often commit anti-social behaviours, however there was no explicit suggestion of any maliciousness behind these acts.
Japanese psychologist and leading expert on the topic, Tamaki Saito, was one of the first to present that approximately 1% of the country's population was considered hikikomori at the time.
[55] Today, it is still existent in Japan taking on new forms of seclusion by using digital tools, such as video games and internet chatting, to replace social interaction.
