Motivation

I am puzzled by the questions Lyons asked participants to determine their criminal behavior as adults. (Lyons, 63) Several violent crimes that in my mind would be indicative of antisocial behavior were not mentioned during the interview such as murder, rape and battery. There may be good reasons for this. Those questions could be excluded from the Diagnostic Interview Schedule or be considered too sensitive to be solicited over the phone. However, even though Lyons asks whether the respondent had ever had sex with someone else for money or been a pimp, he does not ask whether the person has himself solicited sex for money. Soliciting sex for money is a crime but perhaps its exclusion from the list suggests it is not antisocial behavior either in the estimation of those who designed the studies, those who diagnose antisocial personality orders, or society as a whole. Rutter acknowledges that simply equating a crime with a disorder is problematic (Rutter, 1). Therefore, smoking cannabis may not be anti-social behavior. However, deciding what acts are antisocial, just like defining what acts are criminal, seem to be defined largely by social and cultural norms. For example, at least 30 or so years ago, spousal abuse would not have qualified as being criminal let alone antisocial behavior. Given the fact that Lyons study consists exclusively of male participants, this would have been an interesting area to investigate.