Male antisocial behaviour in adolescence and beyond

Abstract

Male antisocial behavior is concentrated in the adolescent period of the life course, as documented by the curve of crime over age. This article reviews recent evidence regarding the hypothesis that the age-crime curve conceals two groups with different causes. Life-course persistent males show extreme, pervasive, persistent antisocial behavior from early childhood to adulthood. They are hypothesized to be rare, with pathological risk factors and poor life outcomes. In contrast, adolescence-limited males show similar levels of antisocial behavior but primarily during the adolescent stage of development. They are hypothesized to be common and normative, whereas abstainers from offending are rare. This article recaps the taxonomy’s 25-year history, concluding that it is standing the test of time in research, and making an impact on policy in early-years prevention and juvenile justice. Research is needed into how the taxonomy relates to neuroscience, health, genetics, and changes in modern crime, including digital crime.

Longitudinal structural brain development and externalizing behavior in adolescence

“…An interesting adolescent-specific pattern concerns the increase in risk-taking, sensation seeking, and novelty seeking, which is often interpreted as a normative pattern in the path toward autonomy and identity development (Crone, Duijvenvoorde, & Peper, 2016;Pfeifer & Peake, 2012). At the same time, deviant behavior such as substance abuse, aggression, and delinquency emerge in adolescence in a subset of individuals (Fairchild, Goozen, Calder, & Goodyer, 2013;Moffitt, 2018), but why and how this occurs is not yet well understood. Although research has shown consistent patterns in developmental changes in brain structure across adolescence (Herting et al, 2018;Mills et al, 2016;Tamnes et al, 2017), few studies examined how the developmental pathway to externalizing behavior is associated with changes in brain development.…”

Bad Boys and Mean Girls: Callous-Unemotional Traits, Management of Disruptive Behavior in School, the Teacher-Student Relationship and Academic Motivation

“…Disruptive behaviors predict school dropout, truancy, school exclusion and are the most common reason for referral to special education and mental health services (Kim-Cohen et al, 2005;Department for Education, 2010). In the longer-term, antisocial behavior can lead to violence and criminal offending, unemployment, relationship instability, health problems and early mortality (Moffitt, 2018), In terms of economic burden, evidence indicates that the greatest cost of externalizing problems appears to be borne by education services (Snell et al, 2013).…”

Parenting Styles and Aggressive Adolescents: Relationships with Self-esteem and Personal Maladjustment

“…Aggressive behavior has been shown to be strongly linked to peers' social influences, broad social and contextual factors, cultural approval of violence, or even a genetic predisposition, although parents are among the strongest influences on the development of aggressiveness in young people (Garcia, Lopez-Fernandez, & Serra, 2018;Moffitt, 2018;Raine, 2002). Many parenting studies generally identify two main orthogonal (i.e., unrelated) dimensions (responsiveness and demandingness, also called warmth/acceptance/ involvement and strictness/imposition) and four parenting typologies (i.e., authoritative, indulgent, authoritarian, and neglectful).…”