Abstract
The father of individual psychology, Alfred Adler, argued that birth order can have an indelible impact on an individual's lifestyle, which is one's habitual way of dealing with the tasks of friendship, love, and work. According to him, firstborns are "dethroned" when a second child comes along, and this loss of perceived privilege and primacy may have a lasting influence. Middle children may experience feelings of being ignored or overlooked, leading to the development of the so-called middle child syndrome. Younger and only children may be pampered and spoiled, which was suggested to affect their later personalities. All of this assumes what Adler believed to be a typical family situation, e.g., a nuclear family living apart from the extended family, without the children being orphaned, with average spacing between births, without twins and other multiples, and with surviving children not having severe physical, intellectual, or psychiatric disabilities. In this study, we shall highlight the association between birth order (eldest, second child, third child, youngest, only child) and type of crime (murder and other crimes) and discuss the interplay between the psychosocial implications of birth order and the probable stress and pressure to commit a type of crime. It was hypothesized that there will be significant association between birth order and type of crime. The sample comprised 85 inmates from Central Prisons of Telangana State of whom 55 are male and 30 female and their age range was 19-55 years. Permission to conduct research was obtained from prison authorities, and participants provided Informed Consent. The data was statistically analyzed. After conducting the Fisher test, it was noted that the results indicate a significant association between birth order and type of crime. Murder crime in the eldest category was significantly higher. There is significant association between birth order and type of crime. Specifically, murder crime in the eldest category was found to be significantly higher. Special emphasis can be made on the eldest and the “burdened” firstborn to receive intervention in the form of counseling and a detailed psychosocial history be taken and specific interventions tailored to improve psychosocial skills so that they can be strengthened even in the prisons. Birth order and its implications on the type of crime committed indicate the emphasis for interventions to be made keeping in mind the subtle nuances and dynamics of birth order and behavior, specifically here the type of crime.