Childhood predictors of adult criminality: are all risk factors reflected in childhood aggressiveness?

Abstract

Level of aggression at age eight is the best predictor of criminal events over the next 22 years. A clear implication is that the risk for criminality is affected by much that happens to a boy before he is eight years old. Preventive interventions need to target risk factors that appear to influence the development of early aggression.

Problem coping skills, psychosocial adversities and mental health problems in children and adolescents as predictors of criminal outcomes in young adulthood

“…The present findings are in accordance with previous community-based studies underlining the role of externalizing psychopathology and substance abuse in adolescence as major predictors of criminal convictions in adulthood [8,10,15,16,22,29,36,39,44,51]. These studies also indicate that, besides criminal behaviours (e.g., stealing or firesetting), other externalizing problems without a direct relation to crime such as lying, temper tantrums, and swearing are also related to adult crimes.…”

“…Irrespective of differences in design and methodology, several population-based studies were able to consistently link child and adolescent conduct problems to later criminal outcomes in adulthood [4,8,10,15,16,22,29,36,39,44,51]. Another risk factor was substance abuse, with community-based studies reporting that early drug use, including alcohol use, were related to later criminal outcomes [5,10,21,51].…”

“…However, none of these methods will provide a complete picture of crime. In previous studies, self-reported delinquency questionnaires [8,14,16,29,36,39,51], police reports [22,44], official charges [10] or convictions [14,22,36] were used to measure criminal outcomes in adulthood. Few studies have reported both self-reported and official information on criminal behaviours [14,36].…”

“…Due to socioeconomic and cultural differences, psychosocial risk factors including SES, migration background, familial and other social stressors and child rearing styles may have a different impact in various countries. Given the findings of previous international studies, it was hypothesized that problematic alcohol use, drug abuse and externalizing mental health problems constitute universal risk factors for later criminal behaviour [4,8,10,15,16,22,29,36,39,44,51]. We also analysed the interaction between sex of the proband and other predictors and then tested an abbreviated 6 externalizing problem scale without the items indicating a specific relationship to criminal behaviours.…”

Peer Victimization during Middle Childhood as a Marker of Attenuated Risk for Adult Arrest

“…Childhood aggression is a powerful marker of serious antisocial problems in later stages of development. Indeed, there are well-documented associations between aggressive behavior and antisocial outcomes in adulthood that include criminal behavior and eventual arrest (Huesmann et al 2002;Patterson et al 1998). Aggression early in life could serve as a lead indicator of emerging antisocial traits (Dodge and Pettit 2003) as well as a correlate of problematic socializing experiences (Petersen et al 2015).…”