This study concludes that the theories that have attempted to explain criminal and antisocial behavior as a consequence of economic and social deprivation as well as stressful environments have erred. Habitual criminal behavior requires a specific psychological orientation that develops only when a number of predisposing and precipitating factors converge with an environment that is conducive to learning aggression. Environment interacts with predisposing factors in the young child to promote the development of cognitions that guide social behavior not only in childhood, but throughout life. Whether these cognitive structures are viewed as scripts, cue-behavior connections, self-regulating internal standards, or attributional biases, these structures are resistant to change as the child grows into adolescence and young adulthood. The major conclusion from these findings is that interventions must target the young child. The adolescent's and young adult's environment may provide the precipitating factors that engender crime and reinforcing consequences for crime, but the psychological basis of the antisocial behavior may have developed much earlier. 4 notes and 53 references