CYIL 2012

“SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS“ IN THE UNITED NATIONS CHARTER… The psychological verification began virtually in the ashes of the Second World War with an influential 1944 British study of 44 juvenile thieves. 23 Limited in terms of numbers and method (opportunity sample) as it was, and limited as such kind of studies happen to be even until this day, it found that the security of early attachment between an infant and his/her mother predicts not just how emotionally well-adjusted an infant grows as an adult, but also predicts his/her moral development. Secure relations between an infant and mother, are formative for social development (popularity at school, good social skills, turn-taking, sharing) and language development (better communication). Those with insecure attachments have a higher rate of social difficulties, including antisocial behaviour. 24 The study preceded the UN Social Commission’s institutional role in developmental crime control and prevention. Shortly after its establishment, in 1947 at its invitation the World Health Organization (WHO) offered the Commission to conduct a new study that would follow-up on the above findings. Four years later, as “a contribution to the UN programme for the welfare of homeless children”, the WHO published a report on Maternal Care and Mental Health. The report was a meta-analytical review of various studies on maternal deprivation, including war-orphaned children. It argued that infants become attached to adults who are sensitive and responsive in social interactions with them, and who remain as consistent caregivers for them some months during the infancy period, roughly six to 24 months. 25 That report – a “citation classic” 26 – transformed the approach to dealing with children in hospitals and schools, by making those places more children- and parents-friendly. Generally uncomfortable with such psychological studies’ method, which may conflate a symptom with a problem (lack of attachment is not a symptom of psychopathy but is psychopathy), and usually limits the studied samples to small groups, Travis Hirschi, a U.S. sociologist, alternatively tested in the late 1960s on a sample of some 4,000 U.S. junior and high-school male students four social bonds that fostered their conformity and compliance, in terms of “attachment”, “involvement”, “commitment” and “belief”. 23 Bolwby, J., Forty-four juvenile thieves: their characters and home-life, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis , Vol. 25 (1944), pp. 19-53. 24 Baron-Cohen, S., The Science of Evil. On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty , New York, Basic Books, 2011. 25 Bowlby, J., Maternal Care and Mental Health: A Report Prepared on behalf of the World Health Organization as a Contribution to the United Nations Programme for the Welfare of Homeless Children, Geneva: World Health Organization, Department for Children and Parents: Tavistock, England, 1951, pp. 36-51. 26 It informed the next generation of psychologists and criminologists, including Terrie Moffit, awarded with the “Stockholm Prize in Criminology” (2007) for her leadership role in social, psychological and biological studies of crime and human development involving the environmental and genetic risk factors for violence.

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