Risk factors for child delinquency
Risk factors for child delinquency
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Sparked by high-profile cases involving children who commit violent crimes, pub- lic concerns regarding child delinquents have escalated. Compared with juveniles whose delinquent behavior begins later in adolescence, child delinquents (offenders younger than age 13) face a greater risk of becoming serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders. OJJDP formed the Study Group on Very Young Offenders to examine the prevalence and frequency of offending by children younger than 13. This Study Group identified particular risk and protective factors that are crucial to developing effective early intervention and protection programs for very young offenders.
This Bulletin is part of OJJDP’s Child Delinquency Series, which presents the findings of the Study Group on Very Young Offenders. This series offers the latest information about child delinquency, in- cluding analyses of child delinquency sta- tistics, insights into the origins of very young offending, and descriptions of early intervention programs and approaches that work to prevent the development of delinquent behavior by focusing on risk and protective factors.
Some aspects of children’s behaviors, such as temperament, are established during the first 5 years of life. This foun- dation, coupled with children’s exposure to certain risk and protective factors, influences the likelihood of children becoming delinquent at a young age. However, the identification of these multiple risk and protective factors has proven to be a difficult task. Although no magic solutions exist for preventing or correcting child delinquency, identify- ing risk and protective factors remains essential to developing interventions to prevent child delinquency from escalat- ing into chronic criminality.
According to the Study Group on Very Young Offenders, a group of 39 experts on child delinquency and child psy- chopathology convened by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), risk factors for child delinquency operate in several domains: the individual child, the child’s family, the child’s peer group, the child’s school, the child’s neighbor- hood, and the media. Most profession- als agree that no single risk factor leads a young child to delinquency. Rather,
Preventing children from engaging in delinquent behavior is one of OJJDP’s primary goals. Early inter- vention is crucial to achieving this goal, and understanding the factors related to child delinquency is essen- tial to effective early childhood inter- vention. As part of its effort to under- stand and respond to these needs, OJJDP formed the Study Group on Very Young Offenders.
This Bulletin, part of OJJDP’s Child Delinquency Series, focuses on four types of risk and protective factors: individual, family, peer, and school and community. It is derived from the chapters devoted to these critical areas for prevention and intervention in the Study Group’s final report, Child Delinquents: Development, Intervention, and Service Needs.
To succeed, intervention methods designed to prevent child delinquency from escalating into serious and vio- lent juvenile offending must address a range of risk and protective factors. In addition to the factors addressed in this Bulletin, OJJDP is pursuing research to examine the role of reli- gious traditions and training as pro- tective factors in the life of a child.
Preventing delinquency early in a child’s life can pay significant divi- dends by reducing crime rates and decreasing crime-related expendi- tures of tax dollars. More important, it can help children avoid the conse- quences of delinquent behavior by increasing their chances of leading law-abiding and productive lives.
Risk and Protective Factors of Child Delinquency Gail A. Wasserman, Kate Keenan, Richard E. Tremblay, John D. Coie, Todd I. Herrenkohl, Rolf Loeber, and David Petechuk
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the likelihood of early juvenile offending increases as the number of risk factors and risk factor domains increases.
Although some risk factors are common to many child delinquents, the patterns and particular combination of risk fac- tors vary from child to child. Profes- sionals have learned a great deal about which risk and protective factors are relevant for screening and intervention. For example, most professionals agree that early on in a child’s life, the most important risks stem from individual factors (e.g., birth complications, hyper- activity, sensation seeking, temperamen- tal difficulties) and family factors (e.g., parental antisocial or criminal behavior, substance abuse, and poor child-rearing practices). As the child grows older and becomes integrated into society, new risk factors related to peer influences, the school, and the community begin to play a larger role.
Although focusing on risk factors is important, examining protective factors that reduce the risk of delinquency is as important for identifying interven- tions that are likely to work. For exam- ple, some common protective factors against child delinquency and disrup- tive behavior are female gender, proso- cial behavior (such as empathy) during the preschool years, and good cognitive performance (for example, appropriate language development and good aca- demic performance). The proportion of protective factors to risk factors has a significant influence on child delinquen- cy, and protective factors may offset the influence of children’s exposure to mul- tiple risk factors.
This Bulletin is based on four chapters from the Study Group’s final report, Child Delinquents: Development, Inter- vention, and Service Needs (Loeber and Farrington, 2001): “Individual Risk and Protective Factors,” “Family Risk and Protective Factors,” “Peer Factors and Interventions,” and “School and Com- munity Risk Factors and Interventions.”
The risk factors for child delinquency discussed in this Bulletin are categorized into four groups: (1) individual, (2) fami- ly, (3) peer, and (4) school and commu- nity. A greater understanding of these risk and protective factors could serve as the basis for future social policies designed to prevent and control delin- quency (see Burns et al., in press, anoth- er OJJDP Bulletin in this series).
Individual Risk Factors Children’s behavior is the result of genetic, social, and environmental fac- tors. In relation to child delinquency, the Study Group defined individual risk and protective factors as an individual’s genetic, emotional, cognitive, physical, and social characteristics. These fac- tors are frequently interrelated, yet the underlying mechanism of how this occurs is not fully understood.
Antisocial Behavior Early antisocial behavior may be the best predictor of later delinquency. Anti- social behaviors generally include vari- ous forms of oppositional rule violation and aggression, such as theft, physical fighting, and vandalism. In fact, early aggression appears to be the most signif- icant social behavior characteristic to predict delinquent behavior before age 13. In one study, physical aggression in kindergarten was the best and only pre- dictor of later involvement in property crimes (Haapasalo and Tremblay, 1994; Tremblay et al., 1994). In contrast, proso- cial behavior (such as helping, sharing, and cooperation), as rated by teachers, appeared to be a protective factor, specif- ically for those who have risk factors for committing violent and property crimes before age 13.
Studies conducted in Canada, England, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United
Child Delinquency Research: An Overview
Historically, delinquency studies have focused on later adolescence, the time when delinquency usually peaks. This was particularly true in the 1990s, when most re- searchers studied chronic juvenile offenders because they committed a dispropor- tionately large amount of crime. Research conducted during this period by OJJDP’s Study Group on Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders concluded that youth re- ferred to juvenile court for their first delinquent offense before age 13 are far more likely to become chronic offenders than youth first referred to court at a later age. To better understand the implications of this finding, OJJDP convened the Study Group on Very Young Offenders in 1998. Its charge was to analyze existing data and to address key issues that had not previously been studied in the literature. Consist- ing of 16 primary study group members and 23 coauthors who are experts on child delinquency and psychopathology, the Study Group found evidence that some young children engage in very serious antisocial behavior and that, in some cases, this behavior foreshadows early delinquency. The Study Group also identified sev- eral important risk factors that, when combined, may be related to the onset of early offending. The Study Group report concluded with a review of preventive and reme- dial interventions relevant to child delinquency.
The Child Delinquency Bulletin Series is drawn from the Study Group’s final report, which was completed in 2001 under grant number 95–JD–FX–0018 and subsequent- ly published by Sage Publications as Child Delinquents: Development, Intervention, and Service Needs (edited by Rolf Loeber and David P. Farrington). OJJDP encour- ages parents, educators, and the juvenile justice community to use this information to address the needs of young offenders by planning and implementing more effec- tive interventions.
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States have confirmed that early anti- social behavior tends to be the best predictor of early-onset delinquency for boys. For example, in a study by Patterson and colleagues, antisocial behavior was the best predictor of age at first arrest when compared with family social disadvantage, parental monitoring, and parental discipline. Long-term results also indicated that those with an early arrest (before age 13) were most likely to be chronic offenders by age 18 (Patterson, Crosby, and Vuchinich, 1992; Patterson et al., 1998). Likewise, the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development in London, England, showed that one of the strongest predictors of a conviction between ages 10 and 13 was trouble- some behavior between the ages of 8 and 10, as rated by teachers and peers (Farrington, 1986).
In another study, the two best predic- tors of later antisocial behavior were mothers’ ratings of their children as difficult to manage at 3 years of age and parents’ ratings of behavior problems at 5 years of age (White et al., 1990). Most children whose caregivers perceived them as difficult to manage at age 3 did not become delinquents before age 13. However, most children who became delinquents before age 13 had behavior problems that had emerged in the first years of life.
Emotional Factors Although early aggressive behavior is the most apparent and best predictor of later delinquency, other individual fac- tors may contribute to later antisocial
behaviors. By the end of the third year of life, children can express the entire range of human emotions, including anger, pride, shame, and guilt. Parents, teachers, and even peers affect chil- dren’s socialization of emotional expres- sion and help them learn to manage negative emotions constructively. Thus, how children express emotions, espe- cially anger, early in life may contribute to or reduce their risk for delinquency.
Many studies of delinquency have focused on the concepts of behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation. Behavioral inhibition (in response to a new stimulus or punishment) includes fearfulness, anxiety, timidity, and shyness. Behavioral activation includes novelty and sensation seeking, impulsivity, hyperactivity, and predatory aggression. The Study Group found evidence that high levels of behavioral activation and low levels of behavioral inhibition are risk factors for antisocial behavior. For example, high levels of daring behavior at ages 8–10 predicted convictions and self-reported delinquency before age 21, whereas measures of anxiety and guilt did not (Farrington, 1998). Overall, stud- ies have shown that impulsive, not anx- ious, boys are more likely to commit delinquent acts at 12 to 13 years of age. More studies are needed to determine whether emotional characteristics in childhood are causes of or simply corre- lates of later antisocial behavior.
Cognitive Development Emotional and cognitive development appear to be associated with children’s ability to control social behavior within the first 2 years of life. Evidence sug- gests that these factors play an impor- tant role in the development of early delinquency and may affect the learning of social rules. In addition to traditional measures such as IQ, the Study Group considered cognitive development in terms of language development, social cognition, academic achievement, and neuropsychological function.
Childhood Risk Factors for Child Delinquency and Later Violent Juvenile Offending
The following risk factors are discussed in this Bulletin.
Individual factors
● Early antisocial behavior
● Emotional factors such as high behavioral activation and low behavioral inhibition
● Poor cognitive development
● Low intelligence
● Hyperactivity
Family factors
● Parenting
● Maltreatment
● Family violence
● Divorce
● Parental psychopathology
● Familial antisocial behaviors
● Teenage parenthood
● Family structure
● Large family size
Peer factors
● Association with deviant peers
● Peer rejection
School and community factors
● Failure to bond to school
● Poor academic performance
● Low academic aspirations
● Living in a poor family
● Neighborhood disadvantage
● Disorganized neighborhoods
● Concentration of delinquent peer groups
● Access to weapons
