Hostname: page-component-6bb9c88b65-g7ldn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-21T05:48:50.566Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Problem behavior as a precursor of male criminality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2009

Minna Hämäläinen  and
Lea Pulkkinen
Minna Hämäläinen*
Affiliation:
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Lea Pulkkinen
Affiliation:
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
*
Minna Hämäläinen, Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, 40351 Jyväskylä, Finland.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The participants (originally 196 boys and 173 girls) in an ongoing longitudinal study were examined using peer nomination and teacher rating at ages 8 and 14 years. Criminal records were collected at age 27 years. The results showed that (a) criminal offenses were best predicted if the accumulation of behavior problems over the school years was considered; (b) the risk for different types of offenses was highest for boys who exhibited escalating conduct problems and school failure over the school years; (c) norm-breaking behavior in early adolescence was strongly related to a propensity to later criminal offenses; (d) childhood aggressiveness did not predict arrests without the presence of other problems. When followed by norm-breaking in early adolescence, it predicted violent offenses, and when followed by poor school success, it predicted property offenses; (e) interestingly, low prosociality turned out to have a significant independent relationship to arrests; and (f) the distinction between an early-onset path and a late-onset path proved to be valid.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , Spring 1996 , pp. 443 - 455
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Allen, J. P., Leadbeater, B. J., & Aber, J. L. (1994). The development of problem-behavior syndromes in at-risk adolescents. Development and Psychopathology, 6, 323–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Block, J., Gjerde, P. F., & Block, J. H. (1991). Personality antecedents of depressive tendencies in 18-year-olds: A prospective study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 726–738.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cicchetti, D., & Richters, J. E. (1993). Developmental considerations in the investigation of conduct disorder, Development and Psychopathology, 5, 331–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clogg, C. C., & Shockley, J. W. (1988). Multivariate analysis of discrete data. In Nesselroade, J. R. & Cattell, R. B. (Eds.), Handbook of multivariate experimental psychology (pp. 337–365). New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farrington, D. P. (1991). Childhood aggression and adult violence: early precursors and later life outcomes. In Rubin, K. H. & Pepler, D. (Eds.), The development and treatment of childhood aggression (pp. 169–188). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Farrington, D. P. (1994). Childhood, adolescent, and adult features of violent males. In Huesmann, L. R. (Ed.), Aggressive behaviour: Current perspectives (pp. 215–240). New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farrington, D. P., & Hawkins, D. J. (1991). Predicting participation, early onset and later persistence in officially recorded offending. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 1, 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hämäläinen, M., & Pulkkincn, L. (1995). Aggressive and non-prosocial behaviour as precursors of criminality. Studies on Crime and Crime Prevention, 4, 6–21.Google Scholar
Hirschi, T. (1969). Causes of delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Huesmann, L. R., & Eron, L. D. (1984). The relation of prosocial behavior to the development of aggression and psychopathology. Aggressive Behavior, 10, 201–211.Google Scholar
Huesmann, L. R., Eron, L. D., Lefkowitz, M. M., & Walder, L. O. (1984). Stability of aggression over time and generation. Developmental Psychology, 20, 1120–1134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurrelmann, K., & Engel, U. (1992). Delinquency as a symptom of adolescents' orientation toward status and success. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 21, 119–138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Le Blanc, M., Vallieres, É., & McDuff, P. (1993). The prediction of males' adolescent and adult offending from school experience. Canadian Journal of Criminology, 35, 459–478.Google Scholar
Lerner, R. M., & Lerner, J. V. (1977). Effects of age, sex, and physical attractiveness on child-peer relations, academic performance, and elementary school adjustment. Developmental Psychology, 13, 585–590.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loeber, R. (1982). The stability of antisocial and delinquent child behaviour. Child Development, 53, 1431–1446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loeber, R. (1988). Natural histories of conduct problems, delinquency, and associated substance use: evidence for developmental progressions. In Lahey, B. B. & Kazdin, A. E., (Eds.), Advances in Clinical Child Psychology, Vol. 11 (pp. 73–124). New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loeber, R. (1991). Disruptive and antisocial behavior in childhood and adolescence: development and risk factors. In Hurrelmann, K. & Lösel, F. (Eds.), Health hazards in adolescence (pp. 1–21). Berlin: DeGruyter.Google Scholar
Loeber, R., & LeBlanc, M. (1990). Toward a developmental criminology. In Norris, N. & Tonry, M. (Eds.), Crime and Justice: An Annual Review, Vol. 10. (pp. 373–473). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Loeber, R., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1987). Prediction. In Quay, H. C. (Ed.), Handbook of juvenile delinquency (pp. 325–382). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Magnusson, D. (1988). Individual development from an interactional perspective: a longitudinal study. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Magnusson, D., & Bergman, L. R. (1990). A pattern approach to the study of pathways from childhood to adulthood. In Robins, L. N. & Rutter, M. (Eds.), Straight and devious pathways from childhood to adulthood (pp. 101–115). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McCullagh, P., & Nelder, J. A. F. R. S. (1983). Generalized linear models. Monographs on statistics and applied probability. London: Chapman and Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, T. E. (1993). Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy. Psychological Review, 100, 674–701.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morison, P., & Masten, A. S. (1991). Peer reputation in middle childhood as a predictor of adaptation in adolescence. A seven-year follow-up. Child Development, 62, 991–1007.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parker, J. G., & Asher, S. R. (1987). Peer relations and later personal adjustment: Are low-accepted children at risk? Psychological Bulletin, 102, 357–389.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Patterson, G. R., Capaldi, D., & Bank, L. (1991). An early starter model for predicting delinquency. In Pepler, D. J. & Rubin, K. H. (Eds.), The development and treatment of childhood aggression (pp. 139–168). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Pitkänen, L. (1969). A descriptive model of aggression and nonaggression with applications to children's behaviour. Jyväskylä Studies on Education, Psychology and Social Research, 19.Google Scholar
Pulkkinen, L. (1982). Self-control and continuity from childhood to adolescence. In Baltes, B. P. & Brim, O. G. Jr. (Eds.), Life-span development and behavior, vol. 4 (pp. 63–105). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Pulkkinen, L. (1992). Life-styles in personality development. European Journal of Personality, 6, 139–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pulkkinen, L. (1995). Behavioral precursors to accidents and resulting physical impairment. Child Development, 66, 1660–1679.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pulkkinen, L., & Pitkänen, T. (1994). A prospective study on the precursors to problem drinking in young adulthood. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 55, 578–587.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pulkkinen, L., & Tremblay, R. E. (1992). Patterns of boys' social adjustment in two cultures and at different ages: a longitudinal perspective. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 15, 527–553.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richters, J. E., & Cicchetti, D. (1993). Mark Twain meets DSM-III-R: Conduct disorder, development, and the concept of harmful dysfunction. Development and Psychopathology, 5, 5–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silbereisen, R. K., & Noack, P. (1988). On the constructive role of problem behaviour in adolescence. In Bolger, N., Caspi, A., Downey, G. & Moorehouse, M. (Eds.), Persons in context: developmental processes (pp. 152–180). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stattin, H., & Magnusson, D. (1989). The role of early aggressive behavior in the frequency, seriousness, and types of later crime. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57, 710–718.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stattin, H., Magnusson, D., & Reichel, E. (1991). Criminal activity at different ages. A study based on a Swedish longitudinal research population. British Journal of Criminology, 29, 368–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stouthamer-Loeber, M., Loeber, R., Farrington, D. P., Zhang, Q., Van Kammen, W., & Maguin, E. (1993). The double edge of protective and risk factors for delinquency: Interrelations and developmental patterns. Development and Psychopathology, 5, 683–701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoshikawa, H. (1994). Prevention as cumulative protection: effects of early family support and education on chronic delinquency and its risks. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 28–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zahn-Waxler, C. (1993). Warriors and worriers: Gender and psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 5, 79–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zoccolillo, M. (1993). Gender and the development of conduct disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 5, 65–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar