De l’attachement au crime : une revue systématique des relations entre styles d’attachement et nature du passage à l’acte criminel

ObjectiveBased on the premises that attachment theory is an innovative paradigm for studying crime in its various facets, this article aims to present and clarify the current state of knowledge about the relationship between attachment and criminal behavior.MethodsA systematic literature review identifying all meta-analyses and reviews published over the past twenty years – from 1998 to 2018 inclusive – was therefore conducted in order to question the clinical and even explanatory value of the various attachment styles with respect to a certain type of offending. The bibliographic databases Science Direct, PsycInfo, PsycArticles, EMBASE and PubMed were examined using the following keywords and boolean operators: (attachment style) AND (criminal behavior) AND (offenders).ResultsThe data indicate that an insecure attachment style is significantly associated with all types of crime (violent behaviors, sexual violence, domestic violence, rule-breaking and antisocial behaviors), regardless of gender or age. The results also provides a network of correspondences and entanglements between particular attachment patterns and specific criminal acts; perpetrators of sexual violence are indeed characterized by a more anxious attachment style than perpetrators of violent offences, who themselves are more insecure in their relationships than perpetrators of non-sexual violence.ConclusionsThe present review emphasizes the decisive role – and the discriminatory value – of attachment dynamics in the protean nature of criminal behaviors.