Introduction
Effective parenting is essential to the moral development of a child. In fact, lack thereof compromises the ethical beliefs maintained by the child, and this could result in the indulgence in unacceptable behaviors. According to the Journal of Family Violence, females are more vulnerable to the effects of distant parenthood than the male gender (Bowles, Dana and Jennifer 681). As a result, witnessing traumatizing events in their early developmental stages could negatively affect their social abilities and integration with other people. With this in mind, it is worth appreciating the fact that most of the female inmates had instances of traumatizing childhoods due to the unconducive environment created by their parents or guardians. Moreover, witnessing cases of violence and adverse victimization augments the females’ possibilities of engaging in unethical practices that lead to moral derailment. Barrick, Lattimore, and Christy (279) argue that the woman’s pathway to a criminal record and incarceration is largely influenced by the socio-emotional behaviors created during their traumatic childhood. This makes them more susceptible to engaging in criminal activities to develop resiliency against the exploitations they experienced in their infancy. In most cases, they participate in drug abuse activities that result in addiction issues. The environment women prisoners were exposed to during their childhood period makes it challenging for them to connect effectively with other people and this heightens their involvement in unlawful activities. This paper evaluates the impact of early childhood development on the emotions of incarcerated women and how the environment they were exposed to determines their character. Additionally, it describes the relationship between the incarcerated women’s emotional turmoil and their addiction issues. For a fact, the exposure of incarcerated women to adverse developmental environments during their childhood negatively affects their emotions, leading to their engagement in criminal activities and drug addiction.
Argument one
Childhood victimization significantly contributes to the development of mental health risks, socio-emotional risk behaviors, and cognitive impairments that lead one into engaging in unethical practices. According to Nuyten and Janneke (157), negative childhood experiences among females nurture the establishment of emotional denial, which makes the victims more susceptible to engaging in resistive activities to prevent their exploitation. Taking part in the illegal activity and developing a criminal profile makes the females feel tough and immune to the challenges they experienced in their childhood. As such, their childhood victimization plays a significant role in establishing their criminal pathways. From a psychological perspective, one can determine the fact that an emotionally traumatic childhood contributes to the development of an attention void that makes the females feel lesser appreciated by their families. Consequently, they become rebellious and end up engaging in unlawful activities to channel the pain they feel towards their parents away from them. Female inmates, therefore, mostly have an emotionally traumatic childhood.
Women with an emotionally traumatic childhood have a lesser regard for a peaceful environment due to the impact of the violence in their infancy. As a result, engaging in criminal malpractices does not make them feel guilty about the consequences of their actions. According to Barrick, Pamela and Christy (298), social ties are important in the development of a woman’s character. Lack thereof negatively affects their interaction with other people and overall appreciation of healthy relationships. Being exposed to a larger extent of childhood victimization results in a social deficit to the victim. As a result, it becomes challenging for the woman to engage in constructive activities due to the lack of accountability created through the maintenance of influential social ties. Since the woman does not feel obliged to uphold the safety of other people, their engagement in criminal activities does not initiate the development of emotions such as guilt and unethical character. Consequently, they engage in illegal activities thereby advancing their criminal profiles and eventually leading to their incarceration. As a result, one is justified to claim that most of the female inmates come from a traumatic childhood.
Women with a traumatic childhood have a higher likelihood of developing cognitive impairments that could result in rebellious actions such as engaging in criminal activities. Due to the adverse levels of neglect experienced by incarcerated women during their childhood, their mental capacities are negatively affected fostering the development of denial activities. According to Bowles, Dana and Jennifer (681), reduced parental custody may contribute to a girl’s engagement in substance abuse. It is essential to acknowledge the fact that the female victims resolve to use drugs as a measure of lessening the pain created by their parent’s attention deficit. This behavior leads to addiction that negatively impacts the cognitive abilities of the women. They become more susceptible to engaging in criminal activities to satisfy their drug abuse patterns and lack of attention. Precisely, substance abuse arises from the need to cope with the child adversity conditions and overall victimization. This situation explains the reason why most female inmates come from an emotionally traumatic childhood and they engage in detrimental drug abuse. Their addiction issues are closely related to the lack of poor developmental environment created by their parents and the need to satisfy their drug consumption patterns resulting from cognitive impairments such as disrupted neurodevelopment.
Argument two
Childhood maltreatment and witnessing of violence affects a woman’s social abilities, and this could lead to moral derailment. According to Ellingsen et al. (471), women respond more strongly to social contexts than men do. As such, the exposure to violence at an early stage affects a girl’s social development abilities. This notion makes them more vulnerable to manipulation as they are unaware of the most influential means of connection with other people. They become more impulsive and easily gullible. Consequently, they might engage in criminal activities to establish their position among the group and to fit in the social context. The International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology argues that women respond more strongly to crime circumstances than men do (Van and Esther 209). As such, their vulnerabilities to social framing are augmented due to the nature of their gender. In a study involving the analysis of 444 incarcerated individuals, it was determined that girls experienced higher levels of witnessed violence and sexual abuses as opposed to boys (Bowles, Dana and Jennifer 682). This analysis implies that women are more socially affected by their childhood environments, and this augments their possibilities of engaging in resistive activities. Consequently, female inmates usually have a more challenging emotionally traumatic childhood as opposed to that of men, and this contributes to their involvement in criminal activities.
The mental perspective created by the disturbing children and initial shock of incarceration leads to enhances the development of unethical behavior and indulgence in drug abuse. This situation is mainly attributed to the fact that the women find it difficult to establish their self-identity and role in the development of the society they are associated with. Since their childhood experience was traumatizing because of the adverse levels of neglect and violence, connecting with other inmates is rather challenging. Additionally, maintain constructive relationships with other people is a demanding task for incarcerated women who had a devastating childhood. As a result, they retaliate the inadequacies of their youth by getting involved in rebellious activities such as theft and molestation. Experiencing violence between their fighting parents deprives the incarcerated women of the positive perception of the world at an early age. Consequently, they become hateful and unfriendly. They engage in drug abuse that leads to their addiction issues while at the prison and after their release. Therefore, one is justified to claim that early childhood trauma affects women negatively, and this significantly contributes to their incarceration.
The maltreatment of a girl child has more adverse social impacts in her development as opposed to boys. As such, this negatively affects their self-esteem leading to the elaboration of hateful characteristics that result in moral derailment. Due to the augmented levels of rebellion created when the child is adversely punished, their initiative to do well is altered with making it difficult to keep out of unethical behaviors. As such, they may conduct criminal activities due to the disapproval of the treatment they received from their guardians during their childhood. Moreover, they might disregard the people in authority due to the negative image portrayed by their guardians during their infancy. Consequently, they break the law by engaging in crime and drug abuse because they are disappointed with the mediocre treatment they received from their parents during the childhood developmental stages. Consequently, the overall development of the girl child is negatively affected, and this contributes to the development of unethical practices such as drug abuse and crime. In the long run, their incarceration explains why a large number of the female inmates usually come from an emotionally challenging childhood and they experience addiction issues in their lives.
Argument three
Many women turn into criminal habits to support their drug habits created by their poor childhood supervision. According to 5 (), family relationships greatly influence the development of criminal behaviors. Specifically, when parents do not show a lot of concern towards the moral development of their children, their ethical characters might be questionable in future. Since girls are generally more emotional, the lack of attention from their parents and other family members leads to the development of depression. When this occurs, the women seek the most influential measures to ease the levels of their disappointment in their families. Drug abuse is one of the most common responses embraced by depressed females seeking a distraction from the inconveniences created by the lack of family care or non-working relationships. Poor social ties between women with an emotional childhood heighten their possibilities of indulging in massive drug abuse. When this occurs, it leads to addiction issues that compromise their cognitive abilities, overall health and could lead to their incarceration. This situation explains why female inmates usually come from families with emotional turmoil.
The lack of contact between an incarcerated woman and family members leads to the development of unethical behaviors and could result in recidivism. According to Barrick, Lattimore and Christy (279), the prison contact between incarcerated women and their family members plays a significant role in their moral development and could contribute to their behavioral betterment. However, when the family members do not express their concerns about the welfare of their female family member, the self-esteem of the incarcerated woman is lowered. Additionally, the woman in prison is reminded of the inadequacies of his family members during the childhood development period. When this happens, the level of depression is heightened, and this augments the urge to take drugs as an escape to the loneliness created by the unconcerned family members. Consequently, there is justification when one claims that most of the female inmates engaging in drug abuse have childhood developmental issues.
The lack of life value created by the poor youth supervision for the female victims makes them vulnerable to the indulgence in criminal activities. Owing to the fact that loneliness leads to the development of psychological complications. The women with a distressing childhood are more likely to be rebellious to authorities and the conventional life principles (Bierie 212). As such, they continually engage in drug abuse to divert their attention from their unappreciative families to a more occupying activity such as addiction. The fact that they lack their family’s support due to their unpleasant behaviors creates a need for them to be independent in the provision of finances to facilitate their drug activities. In the long run, they engage in crime to gather enough money to quench their drug thirst and minimize adverse impacts of their addiction. Their fright of withdrawal symptoms makes it essential for them to engage continually in criminal activities. Since these actions are unlawful, they lead to the incarceration of the female delinquents. This situation explains the rather large number of women inmates who have childhood development and addiction issues.
Weakness and Counter Argument
In spite of the vulnerabilities of women in their infancy, it is worth appreciating that the male gender is equally exposed to similar developmental conditions. However, their responses are relatively more adaptive and constructive as they seek to get the most out of their lives. According to Baltieri (1109), perception plays and essential role in explaining the gender differences in the use of discretion for the betterment of one’s life. Consequently, the response of an individual to a traumatic childhood development is primarily based on one’s will to make the most out of the situation and not the nature of one’s gender. As such, women are not more vulnerable to the inadequacies of poor parenting than men are. Their involvement in crime and drug abuse is based on their life choices and not nature and the vulnerabilities associated with their gender. Consequently, the fact that many incarcerated women had traumatic childhood experiences is not cannot justify their indulgence in criminal activities since the response to child maltreatment is based on one’s perception, not gender.
The social impact created by traumatic childhood experiences greatly influences one’s adult actions. As such, the indulgence of women in criminal activities is justified since their families created a non-conducive environment for their ethical development. Childhood maltreatment deprives the girl child of the positive perception of societal affairs. Consequently, they choose to engage in destructive actions in the community because their childhood period eliminated the conventional perception of the positivity of life. Engaging in criminal activities is a means of escape from the hard reality created through the emotional turmoil (Owen’s Community College n.p). Men do not experience these adverse effects due to the nature of their gender. Since they have a stronger self-esteem, they are more resistive to the negative impacts created by the harsh treatment from their parents. Therefore, there is a justification for the claim that the emotional turmoil created by poor parental care among females contributes to their incarceration and engagement in drug abuse activities.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the impact of childhood development is essential to the establishment of moral values in a child. When a female child is deprived of their right to a conducive living environment, the possibilities of emotionally breaking out and making an irrational decision is heightened. This situation is mainly attributed to the fact that childhood molestation elevates the levels of depression among the female children. As such, they retaliate by engaging in criminal activities and drug abuse since this is a diversion from their attention deficit. Constant indulgence in drug consumption heightens their need for engaging in illegal activities to satisfy their addiction behaviors. The society should work jointly to minimize the instances of childhood molestation as its impacts are significant on the development of an individual. Investing time and finances in creating a conducive development environment for children are bound to have multiple constructive effects on the reduction of criminal activities and drug abuse. Specifically, females will not be compelled to engage in substance addiction due to the lack of family attention and failing relationships. Instead, they would spend a larger section of their lives to enhance the betterment of their lifestyles by engaging in productive activities. The negative impacts posed by crime would be minimal in the society thus fostering greater accountability and lesser instances of incarceration. Consequently, the community needs to act constructively against adverse impacts of child abuse to minimize the threats posed on the female gender.
Works Cited
Baltieri, Danilo Antonio. "Psychosocial Pathways to Sexual Dysfunction among Female Inmates." Archives of sexual behavior 43.6 (2014): 1105-1114.
Barrick, Kelle, Pamela K. Lattimore, and Christy A. Visher. "Reentering Women The Impact of Social Ties on Long-Term Recidivism." The Prison Journal (2014): 0032885514537596. Print.
Bierie, David M. "Prison violence, gender, and perceptions: Testing a missing link in discretion research." American Journal of Criminal Justice 37.2 (2012): 209-228. Print.
Bowles, Melissa A., Dana DeHart, and Jennifer Reid Webb. "Family influences on female offenders’ substance use: The role of adverse childhood events among incarcerated women." Journal of Family Violence 27.7 (2012): 681-686.
Ellingsen, Tore, et al. "Gender differences in social framing effects." Economics Letters 118.3 (2013): 470-472. Print.
Nuytiens, An, and Jenneke Christiaens. "Female pathways to crime and prison: Challenging the (US) gendered pathways perspective." European Journal of Criminology (2015): 1477370815608879. Print.
Owen's Community College. "Owens Community College – Authentication Service". Login.owens.edu. N.p., 2016. Web. 15 Apr. 2016.
Van Ginneken, Esther FJC. "Making Sense of Imprisonment Narratives of Posttraumatic Growth among Female Prisoners." International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology (2014): 0306624X14548531. Print.
