Child Delinquency Bulletin -- April 2003 -- Risk and Protective Factors of Child Delinquency


J. Robert Flores, Administrator	April 2003

Preventing children from engaging in delinquent behavior is one of OJJDP’s primary goals. Early intervention is crucial to achieving this goal, and understanding the factors related to child delinquency is essential to effective early childhood intervention. As part of its effort to understand 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 violent 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 religious traditions and training as protective factors in the life of a child.

Preventing delinquency early in a child’s life can pay significant dividends by reducing crime rates and decreasing crime-related expenditures of tax dollars. More important, it can help children avoid the consequences 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

Introduction

Individual Risk Factors

Family Risk Factors

Peer Risk Factors

School and Community Risk Factors

Interventions

Summary

References

This Bulletin was prepared under grant number 95–JD–FX–0018 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice.

Points of view or opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of OJJDP or the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office for Victims of Crime.

NCJ 193409

Acknowledgments

Gail A. Wasserman, Ph.D., is Professor of Clinical Psychology in Child Psychiatry, Columbia University. Kate Keenan, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago. Richard E. Tremblay, Ph.D., is Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Montreal. John D. Coie, Ph.D., is Professor, Department of Psychology, Duke University. Todd I. Herrenkohl, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor, Social Welfare Department at the University of Washington. Rolf Loeber, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, PA; Professor of Developmental Psychopathology, Free University, Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Director of the Pittsburgh Youth Study. David Petechuk is a freelance health sciences writer.

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