A large number of delinquent activities are performed by adolescents and only occur during this period in their lives. One of the main factors that influence this behaviour is social interaction, mainly with peers. This paper contributes a computational model that predicts delinquent behaviour during adolescence based on interaction with friends and classmates. Based on the model, which was val...

This book is a major contribution to the literature on delinquency. Professor Merrill surveys the resources of the clinician in the tasks of assessing social environment and understanding delinquent personalities; and she describes the use of intelligence tests and projective techniques. The behaviour of delinquent children is understandable only in terms of the basic needs of the individual ch...

BACKGROUND Three different explanations have been given for the observation that adolescent gang members report more delinquent behaviour than their counterparts who do not affiliate with gangs: a) adolescents who commit more crimes join gangs (selection hypothesis); b) gang membership facilitates deviant behaviour (facilitation hypothesis); c) selection and facilitation work interactively (enh...

AIM Delinquency among adolescents and antecedent conduct disorder among children has been recognized as a growing public mental health problem in contemporary societies. The contribution of the neighbourhood environment to delinquent behaviour was examined in a cohort of Dutch adolescents (aged approximately 11 years at baseline; n = 394). METHODS Multilevel regression analyses estimated asso...

BACKGROUND Personality pathology constitutes a major form of psychopathology in adolescents. AIMS To examine the reliability and validity of a Q-sort instrument for assessing adolescent personality pathology designed for clinically experienced informants. METHOD A sample of 294 randomly selected psychiatrists and psychologists each provided data on a current patient, aged 14-18 years. Clini...

Main outcome measures Child behaviour checklist scores at each follow up interval for each of the following components (internalising scale: scoring on feelings of anxiety/depression, withdrawal, somatic complaints; externalising scale: scoring on aggressive behaviour, delinquent behaviour; and scales scoring on attention problems, thought problems and social problems). Individual scores were a...

Studies on delinquent behaviour have frequently shown that firstborn children are less involved in delinquency than middle-born children. We suggest that differential parental control of the children depending on their ordinal position might account for this phenomenon. The study, carried out with a French representative sample (n /1129), indicated that firstborns were more supervised than midd...

Research findings indicate that there are multiple causal pathways to delinquency. A multicomponent model of delinquency was developed to explore systematically the interrelationships of psychosocial variables and their relationships to delinquent behaviour. Most importantly, alienation was tested for its ability to act as a core mediating predictor variable. One hundred and fifty-two adolescen...

BACKGROUND Delinquent youth frequently exhibit high-risk behaviours that can result in serious injury. However, little is known about traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and their correlates in this population. AIMS To examine the period prevalence and correlates of TBIs in delinquent youths. METHOD Interviews were conducted with 720 (97.3%) residents of 27 Missouri Division of Youth Services r...