Project Details
Projekt
The intergenerational transmission of violence: a combined prospective criminological and neurobiological investigation
Subject Area
Empirical Social Research
Biological Psychiatry
Criminology
Biological Psychiatry
Criminology
Term
since 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 497249776
Although the intergenerational transmission of violence is a well-known phenomenon, the mechanisms underlying the different transmission pathways are still hardly understood. Therefore, the present integrative sociological and neurobiological intergenerational research project aims to investigate the development of children (Generation 3, G3) of parents (Generation 2, G2) whose parenting behavior and experiences (through Generation 1, G1) have already been surveyed in the study "Crime in the Modern City" (CrimoC). In particular, the significance of the four forms of violent experience and practice in Generation G2 (Non-Violents, Maintainers, Cycle Breakers, and Initiators) for the development of Generation G3 will be examined. Based on the integrative structural dynamic model of delinquent behavior (SDM), extended by the next generation, and the differential susceptibility theory, we hypothesize that both, positive and negative social factors have a differential impact depending on the individual's biological susceptibility and influence whether violence is transmitted (M) into the next generation or transmission is interrupted (Cycle Breaker). Furthermore, we assume that G3's current action decisions for or against rule-breaking behaviors are modulated by neurobiobehavioral synchrony in daily parent-child interactions. The project is based on panel data from the CrimoC study, which will be extended to include the next generation and the intergenerational interaction between G2 and G3. Comprehensive questionnaire surveys, diagnostic interviews, imaging and genetic investigations of the parent-child dyad will be combined with neuropsychological studies and observational procedures of parent-child interactions. This provides a unique opportunity to examine sociological, psychological, and neurobiological mechanisms of the different transmission pathways of violence.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
