Individual Risk Factors

Children’s behavior is the result of genetic, social, and environmental factors. In relation to child delinquency, the Study Group defined individual risk and protective factors as an individual’s genetic, emotional, cognitive, physical, and social characteristics. These factors are frequently interrelated, yet the underlying mechanism of how this occurs is not fully understood.

Antisocial Behavior

Early antisocial behavior may be the best predictor of later delinquency. Antisocial behaviors generally include various forms of oppositional rule violation and aggression, such as theft, physical fighting, and vandalism. In fact, early aggression appears to be the most significant social behavior characteristic to predict delinquent behavior before age 13. In one study, physical aggression in kindergarten was the best and only predictor of later involvement in property crimes (Haapasalo and Tremblay, 1994; Tremblay et al., 1994). In contrast, prosocial behavior (such as helping, sharing, and cooperation), as rated by teachers, appeared to be a protective factor, specifically for those who have risk factors for committing violent and property crimes before age 13.

Childhood Risk Factors for Child Delinquency and Later Violent Juvenile Offending

The following risk factors are discussed in this Bulletin.
Individual factors

  • Early antisocial behavior

  • Emotional factors such as high behavioral activation and low behavioral inhibition

  • Poor cognitive development

  • Low intelligence

  • Hyperactivity

Family factors

  • Parenting

  • Maltreatment

  • Family violence

  • Divorce

  • Parental psychopathology

  • Familial antisocial behaviors

  • Teenage parenthood

  • Family structure

  • Large family size

Peer factors

  • Association with deviant peers

  • Peer rejection

School and community factors

  • Failure to bond to school

  • Poor academic performance

  • Low academic aspirations

  • Living in a poor family

  • Neighborhood disadvantage

  • Disorganized neighborhoods

  • Concentration of delinquent peer groups

  • Access to weapons
Source: This list is largely based on R. Loeber and D.P. Farrington, eds. 2001. Child Delinquents: Development, Intervention, and Service Needs. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Studies conducted in Canada, England, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United States have confirmed that early antisocial behavior tends to be the best predictor of early-onset delinquency for boys. For example, in a study by Patterson and colleagues, antisocial behavior was the best predictor of age at first arrest when compared with family social disadvantage, parental monitoring, and parental discipline. Long-term results also indicated that those with an early arrest (before age 13) were most likely to be chronic offenders by age 18 (Patterson, Crosby, and Vuchinich, 1992; Patterson et al., 1998). Likewise, the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development in London, England, showed that one of the strongest predictors of a conviction between ages 10 and 13 was troublesome behavior between the ages of 8 and 10, as rated by teachers and peers (Farrington, 1986).

In another study, the two best predictors of later antisocial behavior were mothers’ ratings of their children as difficult to manage at 3 years of age and parents’ ratings of behavior problems at 5 years of age (White et al., 1990). Most children whose caregivers perceived them as difficult to manage at age 3 did not become delinquents before age 13. However, most children who became delinquents before age 13 had behavior problems that had emerged in the first years of life.

Emotional Factors

Although early aggressive behavior is the most apparent and best predictor of later delinquency, other individual factors may contribute to later antisocial behaviors. By the end of the third year of life, children can express the entire range of human emotions, including anger, pride, shame, and guilt. Parents, teachers, and even peers affect children’s socialization of emotional expression and help them learn to manage negative emotions constructively. Thus, how children express emotions, especially anger, early in life may contribute to or reduce their risk for delinquency.

Many studies of delinquency have focused on the concepts of behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation. Behavioral inhibition (in response to a new stimulus or punishment) includes fearfulness, anxiety, timidity, and shyness. Behavioral activation includes novelty and sensation seeking, impulsivity, hyperactivity, and predatory aggression. The Study Group found evidence that high levels of behavioral activation and low levels of behavioral inhibition are risk factors for antisocial behavior. For example, high levels of daring behavior at ages 8–10 predicted convictions and self-reported delinquency before age 21, whereas measures of anxiety and guilt did not (Farrington, 1998). Overall, studies have shown that impulsive, not anxious, boys are more likely to commit delinquent acts at 12 to 13 years of age. More studies are needed to determine whether emotional characteristics in childhood are causes of or simply correlates of later antisocial behavior.

Cognitive Development

Emotional and cognitive development appear to be associated with children’s ability to control social behavior within the first 2 years of life. Evidence suggests that these factors play an important role in the development of early delinquency and may affect the learning of social rules. In addition to traditional measures such as IQ, the Study Group considered cognitive development in terms of language development, social cognition, academic achievement, and neuropsychological function.

The Terrible Twos

The Study Group identified evidence linking behavior problems around age 3 with delinquency by age 13. Antisocial behaviors, such as anger and physical aggression, can appear during the first year of life but often peak at the end of the second year after birth. Thus, before age 3, most children engage in behavior that would be considered antisocial at a later age, including physical aggression. However, most children outgrow early problem behavior. The ones who do not outgrow such behavior are of concern here because of the increased risk that they may become child delinquents.

Poor cognitive development and behavior problems during early childhood could explain the association between academic achievement and delinquency. For example, numerous studies have shown that delinquents’ verbal IQs tend to be lower than their nonverbal IQs (e.g., Moffitt, 1993). Delinquents also have lower mean global IQs and lower school achievement rates compared with nondelinquents (e.g., Fergusson and Horwood, 1995; Maguin and Loeber, 1996).

Mild neuropsychological deficits present at birth can snowball into serious behavior problems by affecting an infant’s temperament (Moffitt, 1993). These deficits can affect children’s control of behaviors such as language, aggression, oppositional behavior, attention, and hyperactivity. Basic cognitive deficits may also be associated with impaired social cognitive processes, such as failure to attend to appropriate social cues (e.g., adults’ instructions, peers’ social initiations).

Hyperactivity

Young child playing game with parents.Studies have shown that restless, squirmy, and fidgety children are more likely to be involved in later delinquent behavior (e.g., Farrington, Loeber, and Van Kammen, 1990; Lynam, 1997). Clinical studies of hyperactive children have shown that they also are at high risk of delinquency (e.g., Loeber et al., 1995). For example, motor restlessness (hyperactive or hyperkinetic behavior), as rated by kindergarten teachers, was a better predictor of delinquency between ages 10 and 13 than lack of prosocial behavior and low anxiety (Tremblay et al., 1994). Another study concluded that hyperactivity leads to delinquency only when it occurs with physical aggression or oppositional behavior (Lahey, McBurnett, and Loeber, 2000).

Previous Contents Next

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