Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

Often neither parents nor the various professionals who work with children can accurately predict which children will cease their disruptive behaviours and which ones will continue or worsen over time. Nevertheless, evidence presented in the US Department of Justice Report "Child Delinquency: Early Intervention and Prevention" demonstrates that a shift of emphasis from adolescent delinquency to more serious chronic juvenile offenders can be effective.

Title: Child Delinquency: Early Intervention and Prevention
Authors: Rolf Loeber, David P Farrington and David Petechuk
Series: US Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention: Child Delinquency Bulletin Series
Number of pages: 20
Date published: May 2003

Background

The number of child delinquents brought before American courts increased by a third between 1990 and 2000. This pattern is a cause for concern as these children are likely to go to become adult offenders. Child delinquents are two to three times more likely to become serious, violent and chronic offenders than adolescents whose delinquent behaviour begins in their teens. Those referred to court for a delinquency offense for the first time before the age of 13 were far more likely to become chronic juvenile offenders than youth first referred to court at an older age.

Risk Factors

The report looks at indicators of delinquency amongst very young children such as late language acquisition, temperamental characteristics (aggressiveness, impulsiveness) and low attachment to caregivers. While some of these indicators are predictive in most cases, it is by no means certain that children demonstrating on or a number of the indicators will go on to become a delinquent adolescent. Many children will engage in problem behaviours of a relatively minor nature, but only for a short period.

Peer Pressure

Peer rejection may also influence child and adolescent delinquency by inducing the rejected child to associate with deviant peer groups and gangs. Gang membership provides a ready source of co-offenders for juvenile delinquency and reflects the greatest degree of deviant peer influence on offending. Also, youths tend to join gangs at younger ages than previously, which leads to an increased number of youthful offenders. The importance of having accomplices cannot be overstressed in child delinquency. For example, a study found that less than 5 per-cent of offenders who committed their first offence at age 12 or younger acted alone

Interventions

The report notes that the majority of interventions are aimed at correcting persistent problem behaviours in children and notes that targeting resources at preventing this behaviour occurring in younger age groups might prove beneficial. Specifically, efforts should be directed first at the prevention of persistent disruptive behavior in children in general; second, at the prevention of child delinquency, particularly among disruptive children; and third, at the prevention of serious and violent juvenile offending, particularly among child delinquents. "The earlier the better" is a key theme of the report in establishing interventions to prevent child delinquency,

The most promising school and community prevention programs for child delinquency are identified as focusing on several risk factors. The report recommends integrating the following types:

• Classroom and behavior management programs.

• Multicomponent classroom-based programs.

• Social competence promotion curriculums.

• Conflict resolution and violence prevention curriculums.

• Bullying prevention.

• Afterschool recreation programs.

• Mentoring programs.

• School organization programs.

• Comprehensive community interventions.

The report also draws on several unique programs have demonstrated that interventions with young children can reduce later delinquency.

Download "Child Delinquency: Early Intervention and Prevention" from the US National Criminal Justice Reference Service website PDF 625K

Thanks to the European Crime Prevention Network (EUCPN) for highlighting this publication.