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Is Age Important? Testing a General Versus a Developmental Theory of Antisocial Behavior

NCJ Number
173366
Journal
Criminology Volume: 35 Issue: 1 Dated: February 1997 Pages: 13-48
Author(s)
D R J Bartusch; D R Lynam; T E Moffitt; P A Silva
Date Published
1997
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The competing predictions derived from Gottfredson and Hirschi's general theory and Moffitt's developmental theory of antisocial behavior were tested using longitudinal data spanning from age 5 to age 18 for the male participants in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study.
Abstract
The developmental theory argues that different factors give rise to antisocial behavior at different points in the life course. In contrast, the general theory maintains that the factor underlying criminal propensity is the same at all ages. The participants were born in Dunedin, New Zealand between April 1972 and March 1973. The research used reports from parents, teachers, and the youths themselves to estimate second-order confirmatory factor models of antisocial behavior. Results revealed that these models provided consistent support for the developmental theory, indicating that separate latent factors underlie childhood and adolescent antisocial behavior. In addition, these childhood and adolescent factors related in ways predicted by Moffitt's developmental theory to four correlates of antisocial behavior. Childhood antisocial behavior was related more strongly than adolescent antisocial behavior to low verbal ability, hyperactivity, and negative/impulsive personality. In contrast, adolescent antisocial behavior was related more strongly than childhood antisocial behavior to peer delinquency. The two underlying latent factors also revealed the predicted differential relations to later criminal convictions: childhood antisocial behavior was significantly more strongly associated with convictions for violence, while adolescent antisocial behavior was significantly more strongly associated with convictions for nonviolent offenses. Figures, tables, footnotes, appended tables, and 43 references (Author abstract modified)