Preventing Chronic Delinquency: The Search For Childhood Risk Factors

Part I of Essay
Together, these findings on the characteristics of chronic delinquency suggest that one important way to decrease overall crime rates among youths is to prevent chronic delinquency, and that early childhood may be an important developmental period to target for its prevent ....

Part II of Essay
.... biological factors, low verbal ability, neighborhoods characterized by social disorganization and violence, parental criminality and substance abuse, inconsistent and/or harsh parenting practices, low socioeconomic status, and exposure to media violence.11 The most important of these factors appear to be low socioeconomic status, having parents who have been convicted of crimes, the child's low cognitive ability(especially poor verbal ability), poor parental child rearing, and the child's own history of antisocial behavior, conduct disorde ....