Delinquent Development in Dutch Childhood Arrestees: Developmental Trajectories, Risk Factors and Co-morbidity with Adverse Outcomes during Adolescence

Abstract

Heterogeneity of re-offending patterns was studied in a group of 287 male early onset offenders who were first arrested before age 12. By combining data on the frequency and severity of offending as registered by the police over a 5-year follow-up period, three delinquent trajectories were identified; low, escalating, and high level re-offenders. Predicting group membership by individual and environmental characteristics known to the police at the time of the first arrest proved difficult. Compared to low level re-offenders, escalators were older and more often came from disadvantaged neighborhoods. High level re-offenders were also older at onset, more often had a non-Western ethnic background, and initially committed more vandalism. Furthermore, at the first police encounter, the police reacted more severely towards those who later became high level re-offenders. Finally, high and escalating re-offenders more often had other adverse outcomes, such as criminal victimization and Child Welfare Agency involvement.

Are Proactive and Reactive Aggression Meaningful Distinctions in Adolescents? A Variable- and Person-Based Approach

“…The four clinical subsamples were selected to capture the entire adolescent aggression range and differed with respect to the mean study aggression level: 131 participants from a special school for children with disruptive behavioral problems, 199 participants from a residential facility for treatment of conduct problems, 154 adolescents with a history of being arrested by the police before the age of 12 (Cohn et al 2015; Domburgh et al 2009), and 103 participants from a Dutch diversion program for delinquent youth (Popma et al 2007). Participants of the first two studies were asked to fill in questionnaires at the start of their treatment within the school program or within the residential facility.…”

Can the causal mechanisms underlying chronic, serious, and violent offending trajectories be elucidated using the psychopathy construct?

“…A greater challenge has been identifying covariates that help explain these trajectories (Blokland, Nagin, & Nieuwbeerta, 2005;Day et al, 2010;Fergusson, Horwood, & Nagin, 2000;Landsheer & Dijkum, 2005;Nagin, Farrington, & Moffitt, 2005;Odgers et al, 2008;van der Geest, Blokland, & Bijleveld, 2009;van Domburgh, Vermeiren, Blokland, & Doreleijers, 2009;Ward et al, 2010). The related major theme of this article is that symptoms of psychopathy can be employed to account for some of these offending trajectories (see also Corrado et al, 2015;McCuish et al, 2014McCuish et al, , 2015.…”

Psychopathic traits in adolescents are associated with higher structural connectivity

“…petty theft, arson, vandalism, trespassing, burglary, assault, sexual abuse and robbery), excluding status offences. Thus far, they have been assessed in four waves: mean age at study entrance 10.8 (SD 1.5) years and mean age at wave three 12.9 (SD 1.5) years (van Domburgh et al, 2009). Wave four included a neuroimaging protocol in which DTI data were acquired.…”