Which of the Criminological Theories of crime causation explains Daphne’s delinquency? Explain your position.
Fourteen year old Daphne, a product of New York City’s best private schools, lives with her wealthy family in a luxury condo in a fashionable neighborhood. Her father is an executive at a local financial services conglomerate and earns close to a million dollars per year. Daphne is always in trouble at school, and teachers report she is impulsive and has poor self-control. At times she can be kind and warm, but on other occasions she is obnoxious, unpredictable, insecure, and demanding of attention. She is overly self-conscious about her body and has a drinking problem. Despite repeated promises to get her life together, Daphne likes to hang out at night in a local park, drinking with the neighborhood kids. On more than one occasion, she has gone to the park with her friend and confidant, Chris, a quiet boy with his own personal problems. His parents have separated and he is prone to suffer from severe anxiety attacks. He has been suspended from school and diagnosed with depression for which he takes two drugs- an antidepressant and a sedative. One night, the two met up with Michael, a 44 year old with a long history of alcoholism. After a night of drinking, a fight broke out and Michael was stabbed, his throat cut, and his body dumped in a pond. Soon after the attack, Daphne called 911, telling the police that a friend “jumped in the lake and didn’t come out.” Police searched the area and found Michael’s slashed and stabbed body in the water; the body had been disemboweled in an attempt to sink it. When the authorities traced the call, Daphne was arrested, and she confessed to police that she had helped Chris murder the victim.
During an interview with court psychiatrists, Daphne admitted she participated in the killing but could not articulate what caused her to get involved. She had been drinking and remembers little of the events. She said she was flirting with Michael, and Chris stabbed him in a jealous rage. She spoke in a flat, hollow voice and showed little remorse for her actions. It was a spur of the moment thing, she claimed, and, after all, it was Chris who had the knife. Later, Chris claimed that Daphne instigated the fight, egged him on, taunting him that he was too scared to kill someone. Chris said that Daphne, while drunk, often talked of killing an adult because she hates older people, especially her parents.
Which of the Criminological Theories of crime causation explains Daphne’s delinquency? Explain your position.
Is she a victim of abuse or neglect? Defend your perspective.
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