NCJ Number
148442
Journal
Criminology Volume: 32 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1994) Pages: 277-300
Date Published
1994
Length
24 pages
Annotation
Several hundred New Zealand 13-year-old boys were administered a battery of neuropsychological assessment tests and completed self-reported delinquency reports; police, court, and self reports were used to update delinquency status when the subjects turned 18. Data were used to predict male delinquency.
Abstract
The results showed that the boys who scored lowest on the neuropsychological tests at age 13 were the most delinquent young men 5 years later. The findings suggest that poor verbal ability is the "active ingredient" for delinquency in the overall IQ. The two factors tapping verbal skills and verbal memory abilities are most robustly related to delinquent outcomes among this sample. These findings were predicted by a new theory of two developmental trajectories of delinquent behavior. The first is adolescence-limited delinquency, while the second is life-course-persistent antisocial behavior. 2 tables, 1 figure, 7 notes, and 47 references