This Article Full Text (OnlineFirst PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Buck, N. Articles by van der Ende, J. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Childhood Psychopathology Predicts Adolescence-Onset Offending: A Longitudinal Study

Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: N.Buck{at}erasmusmc.nl.

	Abstract

Moffitt, Caspi, Harrington, and Milne (2002) found in a follow-up study that many of the supposedly adolescence-limited offenders had committed offenses past adolescence. This finding raises the question of whether adulthood starts later or whether there are two distinct delinquency types, adolescence limited and adolescence onset, each with its own etiology. The present study tested whether the adolescence-onset group could be predicted by childhood psychopathology, as compared to the adolescence-limited and no-offender groups. In sum, 355 boys and girls were included, who reported on their emotional and behavioral problems when they were 11 to 13 years old and on their self-reported criminal behavior 8 to 13 years later. The findings lend support to the hypothesis that adolescence-onset offenders can be distinguished from adolescence-limited offenders.

First published on July 22, 2009
Crime & Delinquency 2009, doi:10.1177/0011128709336938


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?