Terrie E. Moffitt

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Terrie E. Moffitt (* 1955 in Nuremberg ) is an American clinical psychologist and criminologist . She teaches as a professor at Duke University (USA) and at King's College London ( University of London ). Moffitt has made significant contributions to developmental criminology.

Scientific achievement

Moffitt, along with her partner Avshalom Caspi, studied the development of antisocial behavior. To do this, she analyzed, among other things, the results of an ongoing long-term study from New Zealand , the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study . In this study, 1037 children from Dunedin County, New Zealand, who were born between April 1, 1972 and March 31, 1973, are repeatedly recorded and examined through all ages.

The main criminological result of this study was: The number of chronic offenders is rather small. In this group, crimes start at the age of seven and increase continuously into adulthood. According to Moffitt, life-course persisters show considerable deficits in the areas of social, moral, emotional and cognitive competence. This leads to growing problems in the course of life (dropping out of school, unemployment, early fatherhood, divorce, imprisonment), which increase the propensity to commit crimes. Moffitt attributes such processes to neuropsychological dysfunctions from early childhood (such as linguistic deficits, inattention, hyperactivity , aggressiveness , impulsivity ), but denies a biological predisposition to crime. Only in interaction with an unfavorable social environment could the dysfunctionalities develop into an antisocial syndrome.

Episodic juvenile offenders are far more common. Their criminogenic abnormalities only begin with the age of maturity and mostly end with it. In addition, the abnormalities do not affect the entire social area, but only parts of it, especially the leisure area.

Moffitt is also known for her work on the interaction of gene and environmental influences ( Gene-Environment Interaction, GxE ). She was involved in two highly regarded papers that appeared in Science in 2002 and 2003 . In each case, the influence of a certain gene variant, in the case of additional unusual social stress, on the probability of later antisocial behavior or depressive disorders was described.

Awards and honors

She has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2004, a full member of the Academia Europaea since 2005 and of the National Academy of Medicine since 2018 .

In 2007 she received the Stockholm Prize in Criminology .

In 2003 Terrie E. Moffitt received the Eleanor Maccoby Book Award in Developmental Psychology .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Role of Genotype in the Cycle of Violence in Maltreated Children . Sciencemag.org. August 2, 2002. Retrieved December 28, 2014.
  2. ↑ Influence of Life Stress on Depression: Moderation by a Polymorphism in the 5-HTT Gene - Caspi et al. 301 (5631): 386 - Science Signaling . Stke.sciencemag.org. July 22, 2003. doi : 10.1126 / science.1083968 . Retrieved December 28, 2014.
  3. ^ Fellows: Professor Terrie Moffitt. British Academy, accessed January 4, 2018 (English, with a short biography).
  4. ↑ Directory of members: Terrie E. Moffitt. Academia Europaea, accessed January 4, 2018 .
  5. ↑ National Academy of Medicine elects 85 new members. In: nam.edu. National Academy of Medicine, October 18, 2018, accessed October 20, 2018 .
  6. ^ Eleanor Maccoby Book Award in Developmental Psychology. Retrieved December 27, 2018 .
  7. ^ Terrie E. Moffitt | Duke Psychology & Neuroscience. Retrieved December 27, 2018 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Moffitt, Terrie E.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American clinical psychologist and criminologist
DATE OF BIRTH 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg