The Self Related to Criminal BehaviorJacqueline A. TaylorGrand Canyon University: PSY 530April 18, 2016

AbstractProblem Statement: Levels of self-esteem play a role in how aggressive the individual is which, in turn, can determine whether one engages in criminal behavior or not. The levels of self-esteem may range from high to low, which is the determining factor on which aggression is based. Purpose of study: The purpose of the study conducted was to determine the relation between the self and criminal behavior. Methods: The selected size of the participants for the study was originally 200 high school students, in which 100 were male and 100 were female. The number decreased to 100 students (75 were male and 25 were female) based off of a survey on how many participants engaged in criminal behavior while showing signs of aggression within the past year. They were then questioned on their perception of their self-esteem levels and what may have been underlying factors. Findings and Results: Low self-esteem in the participants resulted in them displaying aggression which, in turn led them to engage in criminal activity. While males tended (to) display physical aggression more often than females, females and males equally displayed verbal aggression. High levels of self-esteem in participants seemed to not result in criminal behavior. Conclusions: There are multiple ways to minimize the risk of minors engaging in criminal behavior. Different recommendations were discussed such as therapy and educational workshops.

IntroductionA quote made famous posthumously by Marilyn Monroe states that Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are. Relating the self to criminal behavior is a crucial step in beginning to understand how aggression stems from low self-esteem which eventually leads to poor decision making. Since low self-esteem may lead to more aggression and aggression is often linked to criminal behavior, the level of self-esteem plays a role in whether one commits criminal acts.Review of Related LiteratureTeaching Ethics to Criminal Justice Students written by Bailey and Ballard focused their study on the self and reflects the beliefs of the authors in the pedagogic thesis that ethics awareness begins with individual social actors and their existing world views. (Bailey and Ballard, 2016) They also argued that these individuals, whom they focused on, were able to remain protected from unethical behavior as they gain their own purpose. From these arguments, they formed a paradigm which could be used within educational settings, whether they are aimed towards criminal justice courses within school or police training courses, specifically designed to teach ethics to students.The article by Falkenbach, Howe & Falki examined self-esteem level and stability as it relates to the factors of psychopathy and narcissism predicting aggression. (Falkenbach, Howe & Falki, 2013) This experiment was conducted among 118 undergraduates. The students fell into one of two groups. Those that related to Factor 1 features of psychopathy deemed to have higher self-esteem with less aggression and those that fell into Factor 2 seemed to have lower self-esteem with more aggression. Needless to say, low self-esteem had much to do with whether aggression was displayed or not.Improving Negative Emotion in Young Offenders Reduces Subsequent Crime focused on the effect of emotion recognition training on criminal behavior. (Hubble, Bowen, Moore, & Van Goozen, 2015, p. xx) They looked at 50 juvenile offenders in which they were matched for certain criteria such as age, IQ and lifetime crime level. They were all tested twice for emotion recognition performance. The results showed that after training, the rates of anger and fear improved significantly among the individuals. After 6 months, those offenders who received the emotionally based training showed a significant reduction in crime. It also showed that the emotionally based training can be effective in reducing criminal behavior and the severity associated with reoffending.Morsnbl concentrated on the fact that aggression is a serious problem that occurs among a variety of ages and can affect not only the victim but the aggressor as well. The author looked at factors that influenced aggression such as gender, low self-control and self-esteem. The main focus of the study was to see how these factors related to aggression. He looked at 240 adolescents which ranged between high school students and college students. They also varied among genders of ages between 15 and 24. The findings showed that these factors and more predicted aggression, indeed. While the strongest predictor was low self-control, the weakest was the life period. The study provided strong results and in the end, they concluded that when educators presented intervention programs, they should focus on the five factors of aggression.In The Role of Peer Pressure, Automatic Thoughts and Self-Esteem on Adolescents Aggression, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of peer pressure, automatic thoughts and self-esteem variables on the aggression levels of male and female adolescents. ((Yavuzer, Karata, Civilida, & Gndodu, 2014, p. xx) They took 411 students that were randomly selected in which they had to go through numerous questionnaires and tests. Results concluded that peer pressure along with automatic thoughts seemed to predict aggression levels. Automatic thoughts was the main factor between aggression and self-esteem in both males and females. They recommended that (1) schools implement workshops to inform students on aggression and violence and (2) recommend using cognitive-behavioral techniques to raise adolescents awareness of nonfunctioning and aggression-triggering automatic thoughts in order that they may modify these thought patterns. (Yavuzer, Karata, Civilida, & Gndodu, 2014, p. xx)Method: Qualitative vs QuantitativeUpon studying and researching how self-esteem is related to criminal behavior and aggression, most studies are quantitative. For purposes such as research papers, this signifies that when conducting a study, usually an amount of participants is stated. For the purpose of this particular research, I am taking 200 high school students as my participants. Females account for 100 of the students and males account for the other 100 of the participants. Their ages range from 15-18, as they are all high school students. With this number of participants in mind, I conducted a survey which focused on the question of how many times have you committed acts out of aggression within the past year? I conducted the survey based off of this question because it was able to let me know by numerical value how many individuals seemed to still display acts of aggression recently and it also examined which students were repeatedly showing aggression. I do want to note that permission was granted by these participants parents as they are all minors.From there, I was able to limit my number of participants down to 100 students. Of this number, 75 were male and 25 were female. How I came to reduce the number of participants was to see how many students reported 5+ times of displaying aggression within the last year. After reducing the number of participants, I asked them all one question: how many of you students feel that you may exhibit low self-esteem? Although it seemed to be a simple question, many participants were hesitant to raise their hands.In order to get a true response, I looked at whether these aggressive attitudes and actions resulted in criminal acts, mainly violent criminal acts. Surprisingly, most students were honest with their answers. This gave me a better opportunity to test the hypothesis of lower self-esteem leads to aggression which in turn relates to criminal behavior. I was able to conclude from these individuals that the males made up the majority of the participants that agreed that their aggressive attitudes led them to make poor choices. Although, females reported that they felt that they exhibited low self-esteem in general. A factor that contributed to their level of self-esteem seemed to be jealousy which can be proved by observing how they interact with their peers and most importantly, their friends. ResultsObservers, including many mental health professionals, maintain that basic to the psychology of many criminals is their low self-esteem that gives rise to antisocial behavior. (Samenow, 2012) The results of my study has shown that individuals, of both genders, who displayed aggression not only had low self-esteem which tends to lead to poor choices and/or criminal behavior, but it counteracts the fact that those who do not engage in criminal activity, usually display high levels of self-esteem. Although those with higher self-esteem dont usually participate in criminal behavior, there are instances when they do. These can include situations such as being in the wrong place at the wrong time or participating in an activity which they may not be aware is wrong. What it boils down with these individuals is usually surrounding themselves with the wrong crowd.Within the findings of my study, I was able to conclude that males display more aggression than females physically. Verbally, males and females display aggression at about the same rate. While the women thought that their aggression tended to come from a loss of self-control, it was found to be true that men believed their aggression stemmed from the feeling of needing to have control over others, which is where the issue of self-esteem comes into play. They believe that its being challenged, along with their integrity. While the majority of my female participants admitted to feeling guilty and looking at their aggression in a negative light, the male participants tend to view their aggression in a positive light. Overall, other factors lead the participants to engage in criminal activity, other than self-esteem issues. They stemmed from reasons such as failures in life and dysfunctional families and homes. When I mention failures in life, Im speaking in terms of their educational backgrounds and work. In some cases, between both genders, theyve mentioned trouble pasts which led to making poor decisions. Their pasts have also played a role in their level of self-esteem. One female participant mentioned that she grew up with her mother living a life that included numerous drug addictions that eventually caused her to end up being incarcerated for numerous years in the young ladys life. She believed that seeing her mother act in such a fashion, played a part in her engaging in criminal behaviors. A young man admitted that he grew up without a father and male role model which has made him angry throughout his whole entire life. He believes that this aggression led him to act out and go down the wrong path in life.Its also important to note that some participants engaged in criminal activity because of their household structure and where they lived within the city. They mentioned that they were raised in a one parent household or they were cared for by older brothers and sisters. They admitted feelings of neglect and betrayal by their parents. When they were raised in a single parent household, they tended to feel neglected because the one parent was always working so they were barely home to keep an eye on their children. This led them to engage in criminal behavior by looking for love among their peers, who were usually actively involved in gangs and the distribution of drugs or other illegal activities.Again, I would like to reiterate that males and females differ in the various types of aggression that they display. While more men displayed physical aggression, women and men were equal as far as verbal aggression. Aggression nonetheless was usually always based off of the fact that they had low self-esteem regardless of the age. Reasoning behind their criminal acts were sometimes shared by members of both genders. The reasons werent just tied and related to one gender. Low self-esteem doesnt only appear in one gender. It appears in both genders for multiple reasons, as described above.DiscussionUpon completion of my thorough research/study, as well as observing and interacting with these chosen participants, I have several propositions that would not only affect the participants but those who interact and surround themselves with them. These individuals that I speak of may be educators, parents, siblings, friends, officers of the law, as well as possible victims.Firstly, I believe it would be a great idea for those listed above to gain a sense of who these participants really are and why they may act the way that they do. This research can be the beginning of delving into who these individuals really are. I suspect that as children, there are some resources such as counseling that may be beneficial in understanding why these individuals engage in the behaviors that may not be ideal. It would be best to gain a sense of where exactly their level of self-esteem stems from. After all, their aggressive ways leads to engaging in criminal behavior due to them having low self-esteem. Whether its their family or failures in life, their self-esteem issues stem from something. Its our duty to not only find out what it is but to also help them along the way.Second, I do strongly believe that there should be resources available at school which may come in the form of counseling, therapy, or workshops that minors can attend that can help them choose a better path in life as well as to help them understand why they make the decisions that they make. It is definitely going to take more than punishing these individuals for their actions. Gaining and creating a relationship with an individual that they feel they can trust and talk to may be the key to them choosing a better path in life. These workshops can be open to all students, not just the troubled students. It would help their peers gain a better sense of what they can do to help steer their fellow students in a better direction. It may also open up the opportunity for students to realize who they can turn to when they feel that a student may be in trouble and need help. Third, perhaps we can encourage these young adults to engage in extracurricular activities including sports, church youth groups, classes in areas where they may express interests in, programs such as the Big Brother Program, furthering or finding a hobby, getting a job, or joining certain clubs in school such as the debate club or drama. I find it factual that engaging in other activities may not only help relieve their minds from stressful situations that they be facing, but self-esteem levels rise when individuals feel good about themselves. For instance, take the example about students joining a sports team. Not only would this give individuals an opportunity to gain healthy relationships with others, it would also enable them to occupy their minds with practice as well as attending important games. Past studies have shown that the more active an individual is, the more they tend to stray from making poor decisions. Imagine them winning a game that they practiced so hard for! Of course, the team and the coach would feel good but the gratitude that one can gain for themselves is rewarding! Lastly, it would be of great advantage for these minors or individuals to understand how their decisions make others feel. If one has engaged in a violent crime, it may be helpful for them to possibly talk to their victims and understand how it affected them. Usually when one commits a violent act and they see for themselves the consequences that their decisions had on others, they start to feel a bit of regret and thats perfectly fine. It may stray them from committing the same act or multiple acts in the future. If there is a way of cutting back on reoffending and allowing individuals to deal with their aggression in a positive manner, it would be great! ConclusionLevels of self-esteem may influence the level of aggression within individuals which may in turn reflect on if these individuals engage in criminal activities or not. Those who display high levels of self-esteem are less likely to engage in criminal behavior while those who display low levels of self-esteem are more likely to engage in criminal behavior. Its up to the individual as well as those within their community or group to determine exactly what level they display and to take action from that point on. Its important to remember that while men are more likely to display physical aggression, females and males are equal when it comes to being verbally aggressive. Where do we go from here? Where is the starting point? Where does it end? Those are the questions that need answers.

ReferencesBailey, K., & Ballard, J. D. (2015). Teaching Ethics to Criminal Justice Students: Focusing onSelf-Identify, Self-Awareness, and Internal Accountability. Teaching Ethics, 15(1), 201212. Retrieved fromhttp://eds.b.ebscohost.com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=b3901f8b532a-41e1-af66-b0ea3bcefbf3@sessionmgr114&vid=8&hid=117&preview=falseFalkenbach, D. M., Howe, J. R., & Falki, M. (2013). Using self-esteem to disaggregatepsychopathy, narcissism, and aggression. Personality and Individual Differences, 54(7),815-820. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2012.12.017Hubble, K., Bowen, K. L., Moore, S. C., & Van Goozen, S. H. (2015). Improving NegativeEmotion Recognition in Young Offenders Reduces Subsequent Crime. PLOS ONE,10(6), e0132035. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0132035Morsnbl, . (2015). The Effect of Identity Development, Self-Esteem, Low Self-Control andGender on Aggression in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood. Eurasian Journal ofEducational Research, 15(61), 99-116. doi:10.14689/ejer.2015.61.6Samenow, S. E. (2012, September 21). Does the Criminal Really Have "Low Self-Esteem?" |Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/inside-thecriminal-mind/201209/does-the-criminal-really-have-low-self-esteemYavuzer, Y., Karata, Z., Civilida, A., & Gndodu, R. (2014). The Role of Peer Pressure,Automatic Thoughts and Self- Esteem on Adolescents Aggression. Eurasian Journal ofEducational Research, 14(54), 61-78. doi:10.14689/ejer.2014.54.4

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