Interrelatedness of Family and Parenting Risk Factors for Juvenile Delinquency: A Network Study in U.S. and Dutch Juveniles.

Family interventions that address a diversity of family and parenting factors are often used to prevent juvenile delinquency, but are effective to only a limited extent. This study applied a network approach to risk factors for juvenile delinquency and examined the interrelatedness of specifically family and parenting risk factors in a U.S. and separate Dutch sample of juveniles and their family members. Differences in interrelatedness between these samples were examined as well. Secondary analyses were conducted on data collected in the United States with the Washington State Juvenile Court Assessment (WSJCA) and on data collected in the Netherlands with a Dutch-adapted translation of the WSJCA. Network analyses were performed, separately for the U.S. (N = 13,613) and Dutch (N = 3,630) sample, on seven risk factors that were assessed with a three-point Likert scale ranging from each factor's protective side to a corresponding risk side. In the U.S. sample network, "inadequate parental punishment" and "lack of parental supervision" that both refer to an authoritarian parenting style were the most "central" factors and had the strongest associations with the other risk factors. In the Dutch sample network, "the family not providing opportunities" and "inadequate parental reward" were the most "central" factors, which refer to an authoritative parenting style. The family and parenting factors identified as most central in the networks may be promising to address in family interventions, as it can be expected that both the directly addressed problems and their correlated problems will improve. The current results may inform attempts to strengthen family interventions for juvenile delinquency in the United States and the Netherlands.

Juvenile Delinquency in the Context of Organized Crime in Mexico: A Systematic Review.

In 2007, Mexico implemented a strategy to combat drug trafficking through military intervention, after which a significant increase in homicides, mainly among young men, was observed and linked to structural problems as well as organized crime, especially the recruitment of youth, with adolescents being particularly vulnerable. Through a systematic review of the literature from 2013 to 2022, we have compiled the reported factors influencing the recruitment of adolescents by organized crime in Mexico and conducted a metasynthesis of the data according to the multiple levels that affect adolescents: individual, family, community, cultural, and social. This research has shown that many of the factors reported are interrelated and need to be studied holistically. In addition, many of the factors are common to other forms of juvenile delinquency, but the main difference is the presence of organized crime itself in the community and culture.

Trajectories of offending over 9 years after youths' first arrest: What predicts who desists and who continues to offend?

Antisocial and illegal behavior generally declines as youth approach adulthood, but there is significant individual variation in the timing of the peak and decline of offending from adolescence to young adulthood. There are two primary research questions in the present study. First, are there subgroups of youth who follow similar patterns of offending over the nine years after their first arrest? Second, what baseline factors predict which youth will follow each pattern of offending? Data were drawn from the Crossroads study, which includes a sample of racially and ethnically diverse boys who were interviewed regularly for 9 years following their first arrest. Boys were between 13 and 17 years old at the start of the study and were approximately 24-25 years old at the final interview. Trajectories were measured with youths' self-reported offending using latent class growth analysis (LCGA). Results indicated that there were four subgroups of youth: a stable low group (55%), an escalating group (23%), a short-term recidivist group (15%), and a persistently high group (7%). Several baseline factors distinguished the groups. In particular, the results indicated that youth who were informally processed after their first arrest were more likely to be in the low offending group than any of the other LCGA groups. Age at first arrest, peer delinquency, exposure to violence, substance use, callous-unemotional traits, physical aggression, and perceptions of police legitimacy were also significantly related to group membership. Results suggest that certain risk factors identified after youths' first arrest may predict which youth continue to offend and which desist.

A prospective study of sexual risk patterns associated with delinquency and justice involvement among child welfare system-involved male adolescents in the United States.

INTRODUCTION: Early sexual activity and teen pregnancy are known risk factors for delinquency and justice involvement among male adolescents. However, less is known about these patterns among child welfare system (CWS)-involved boys who face significant social barriers and past/current traumatic experiences. METHODS: We prospectively examined these associations among male adolescents who identified as low and high risk for child-maltreatment via a secondary data analysis of the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect dataset-a large scale assessment of children, their parents, and their teachers in the United States to understand issues of child abuse and neglect. We extracted and examined data from 657 boys who were identified as at-risk for maltreatment or with histories of substantiated maltreatment at ages 6, 8, 12, 14, and 16. We used structural equation modeling to examine the relationship between sexual activity (i.e., age of sexual debut, actively having sex, and sex resulting in a child) and changes in delinquency and justice involvement. RESULTS: Male adolescents who have engaged in sex and/or have fathered a child had greater increases in delinquency over time compared to those who have not had sex. Further, fathering a child was significantly associated with justice involvement, especially for the high-risk group. CONCLUSION: Results indicate that greater efforts should be taken to ascertain CWS-involved male adolescents' sexual health practices and parenting status. Male adolescents in the CWS require support with accessing developmentally appropriate sexual health education and family services.

Alcohol Use and Moffitt's Maturity Gap Thesis for Adolescent Offending: An Evolutionary Perspective and Analysis.

While a wealth of research has focused on testing several arguments from Moffitt's developmental taxonomy of antisocial behavior-mainly the presence of life-course-persistent vs. adolescence-limited offending and predictors of each trajectory-much less attention has been devoted to examining how evolutionarily adaptive lifestyle factors common during adolescence may condition the relationship between the maturity gap and delinquent offending. One factor that may play a role during this period of development is alcohol use, as many adolescents begin to experiment with consuming alcohol in varying degrees in social settings to model adult-like behaviors. Yet presently much is unknown about the role of alcohol use on the association between the maturity gap and delinquency. The current study aims to address this void in the literature by analyzing data from a U.S. sample of adolescent males (N = 1,276) to assess whether alcohol use moderates the relationship between the maturity gap and delinquent behavior. Findings suggest that the maturity gap is associated with delinquent behavior and that the association becomes weaker at higher levels of alcohol use. The implications of these findings for Moffitt's maturity gap thesis and male offending from an evolutionary perspective are discussed.

Cooperative coparenting and the associations with adolescent behavioral problems and delinquency in unmarried families.

INTRODUCTION: Coparenting in unmarried families is a protective factor for positive adolescent adjustment. Although the relations between coparenting and adolescent outcomes have been investigated, it remains unclear whether the specific patterns of maternal and paternal coparenting are associated with adolescent behavioral outcomes. METHODS: The present study includs a longitudinal cohort of 1143 triads of unmarried parents and their adolescents to examine the associations between different patterns of coparenting and adolescent behavioral problems and delinquency. The data were drawn from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study in the United States. Our study used six waves of publicly available data at children's birth, ages 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15. RESULTS: The latent profile analyses identified four coparenting profiles of maternal and paternal coparenting perceived by the other unmarried parent. Comparing average levels of coparenting between mothers and fathers, the profiles were entitled Low Mom-Low Dad, High Mom-Medium Dad, Low Mom-Medium Dad, and High Mom-High Dad. Parents characteristics, such as cohabitation and marital status, predicted the likelihood of being in cooperative coparenting profiles. Furthermore, all the identified coparenting profiles predicted adolescent externalizing behavioral problems; only the high mom cooperative coparenting profiles predicted adolescent internalizing behavioral problems; none of the coparenting profiles predicted adolescent delinquency. CONCLUSIONS: Our study adds empirical evidence for coparenting research by revealing that coparenting patterns vary in unmarried families and that cooperative coparenting benefits child behavioral outcomes. The findings encourage introducing different coparenting training programs targeting unmarried parents' diverse needs, thus promoting positive adolescent adjustment.

Psychopathy Scores Predict Recidivism in High-risk Youth: A Five-year Follow-up Study.

Psychopathic traits have been associated with rearrest in adolescents involved in the criminal legal system. Much of the prior work has focused on White samples, short follow-up windows, and relatively low-risk youth. The current study aimed to evaluate the utility of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV) for predicting general and violent felony recidivism in a large sample of high-risk, predominantly Hispanic/Latino, male adolescents (n = 254) with a five-year follow-up period. Results indicated higher PCL:YV scores and lower full-scale estimated IQ scores were significantly associated with a shorter time to felony and violent felony rearrest. These effects generalized to Hispanic/Latino adolescents (n = 193)-a group that faces disproportionate risk of being detained or committed to juvenile correctional facilities in the U.S. These results suggest that expert-rated measures of psychopathic traits and IQ are reliable predictors of subsequent felony and violent felony rearrest among high-risk male adolescents.

Effectiveness, working mechanisms, and implementation of youth-initiated mentoring for juvenile delinquents: a multiple-methods study protocol.

BACKGROUND: The societal costs associated with juvenile delinquency and reoffending are high, emphasising the need for effective prevention strategies. A promising approach is Youth-Initiated Mentoring (YIM). In YIM, professionals support youths in selecting a non-parental adult from within their social network as their mentor. However, until now, little (quasi-)experimental research has been conducted on YIM in the field of juvenile delinquency. We will examine the effectiveness, working mechanisms, and implementation of YIM as a selective prevention strategy for juvenile delinquents. METHODS: This multiple-methods study consists of a quasi-experimental trial and a qualitative study. In the quasi-experimental trial, we aim to include 300 juvenile offenders referred to Halt, a Dutch juvenile justice system organisation which offers youths a diversion program. In the Netherlands, all juvenile offenders between 12 and 18 years old are referred to Halt, where they must complete the Halt intervention. Youths will be non-randomly assigned to region-matched non-YIM-trained and YIM-trained Halt professionals implementing Care as Usual (CAU, i.e., the Halt intervention) or CAU plus YIM, respectively. Despite non-random allocation, this approach may yield comparable conditions regarding (1) the characteristics of professionals delivering the intervention and (2) case type and severity. Youth and caregiver(s) self-report data will be collected at pre-and post-test and a 6-month follow-up and complemented with official Halt records data. Multilevel analyses will test whether youths following CAU plus YIM show a stronger increase in resilience factors and a stronger decline in the need for formal support and delinquency than youths following CAU. In the qualitative study, we will organise focus group interviews with YIM-trained professionals to explore boosters and barriers experienced by professionals during the implementation of YIM. DISCUSSION: The proposed study will help identify the effectiveness of YIM in strengthening resilience factors and possibly decreasing juvenile delinquency. In addition, it may offer insights into how and for whom YIM works. Finally, this study can help strengthen the implementation of YIM in the future. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.Gov (# NCT05555472). Registered 7 September 2022. https://www. CLINICALTRIALS: gov/ct2/show/NCT05555472?cond=Youth+Initiated+Mentoring&draw=2&rank=1 .

A Statewide Evaluation of the Implementation of Evidence-Based Suicide Prevention Guidelines in Juvenile Detention Centers.

This study aimed to explore suicide prevention in juvenile detention centers by conducting a case study of one state. Qualitative data from semistructured interviews were synthesized from 10 juvenile detention centers. Analytical techniques included thematic and content analysis and the integration of quantitative information and qualitative themes to illustrate key differences in suicide prevention practices and center characteristics among facilities with varying frequencies of crisis stabilization calls and critical incidents. Although the use of many suicide prevention practices was reported across the sample, the quality with which those practices were implemented was highly variable. The analysis suggests that facilities with higher-quality implementation of suicide prevention practices may have had leaders who acknowledged that their facility plays a role in suicide prevention. Moreover, preliminary evidence suggests that the quality of suicide prevention implementation may be associated with the number of crisis stabilization calls and critical incidents (i.e., variables related to suicidality) a facility experiences. Clear conceptualization of a juvenile detention center's role in suicide prevention may lead to better outcomes in suicide prevention implementation. High-quality implementation may reduce suicidality exhibited by youths in juvenile detention and save lives.

In search of the origins of crime continuity: Aggressive versus nonaggressive delinquency as a key factor in the psychological inertia process.

The purpose of this study was to test whether the psychological inertia process believed to give rise to crime continuity is limited to aggressive delinquency or evolves from both aggressive and nonaggressive delinquency. Self-report data provided by 845 early adolescent youth (406 boys, 439 girls) were analyzed in an effort to test the hypothesis that aggressive rather than nonaggressive delinquency precipitates a rise in delinquency through the intervening influence of cognitive impulsivity but not moral neutralization. The hypothesis stated that of the four models evaluated in this study (aggressive delinquency → moral neutralization → offense variety; aggressive delinquency → cognitive impulsivity → offense variety; nonaggressive delinquency → moral neutralization → offense variety; nonaggressive delinquency → cognitive impulsivity → offense variety), only the aggressive delinquency → cognitive impulsivity → offense variety model would achieve significance. Consistent with this hypothesis, only the aggressive delinquency → cognitive impulsivity → offense variety pathway was, in fact, significant. The current findings suggest that the psychological inertia process may be driven by a pattern of aggressive delinquency followed by cognitive impulsivity and that neither nonaggressive delinquency nor moral neutralization contribute to the process. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

Differential Item Functioning in Reports of Delinquent Behavior Between Black and White Youth: Evidence of Measurement Bias in Self-Reports of Arrest in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.

Youth self-reports are a mainstay of delinquency assessment; however, making valid inferences about delinquency using these assessments requires equivalent measurement across groups of theoretical interest. We examined whether a brief 10-item delinquency measure exhibited measurement invariance across non-Hispanic White (n = 6,064) and Black (n = 1,666) youth (ages 10-11 years old) in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Developmentsm Study (ABCD Study®). We detected differential item functioning (DIF) in two items. Black youth were more likely to report being arrested or picked up by police than White youth with the same score on the latent delinquency trait. Although multiple covariates (income, urgency, and callous-unemotional traits) reduced mean-level difference in overall delinquency, they were generally unrelated to the DIF in the Arrest item. However, the DIF in the Arrest item was reduced in size and no longer significant after adjusting for neighborhood safety. Results illustrate the importance of considering measurement invariance when using self-reported delinquency scores to draw inferences about group differences, and the utility of measurement invariance analyses for helping to identify mechanisms that contribute to group differences generally.

Investigating Trauma Symptomology as a Mediator of the Relationships Between Childhood Maltreatment and Sexual and Non-Sexual Delinquency.

Maltreatment is a risk factor for both sexual and non-sexual delinquency. Little is known about how specific forms of maltreatment relate to the distinct offending outcomes. Though trauma symptoms have been associated with maltreatment and delinquency, the intervening role of trauma symptoms in pathways from maltreatment to offending is not well understood. The goal of the current study was to test social learning and general strain theory explanations for sexual and non-sexual delinquency in adolescence, exploring trauma symptoms as a mediator between the four major types of maltreatment and offending outcomes. Data were collected via surveys of 136 incarcerated youth at seven residential treatment and community corrections facilities in a Midwestern state. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to establish a measurement model, and structural equation modeling was employed to test direct and indirect pathways from maltreatment to offending. Individual forms of maltreatment had differential relationships with offending outcomes, with neglect having a significant association with non-sexual delinquency, and sexual abuse having a significant direct relationship with sexual delinquency. Trauma symptomology did not mediate these relationships. Future research should explore developmentally appropriate proxies for measuring childhood trauma. Practice and policy should consider the role of maltreatment victimization history in the inception of delinquency behaviors, prioritizing therapeutic alternatives to detention and incarceration.

Identity status and narrative identity processes in female adolescents' stories about committing crimes and being convicted.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescent delinquency has been suggested to evolve from a normative motivation to establish independence and identity. However, few studies have examined this in detail, especially in young women. The aim was, therefore, to investigate identity formation in adolescent females with limited delinquency by focusing on identity status and identity processes in narratives about committing crimes and being convicted. METHODS: Interviews with 10 females, 15-18 years old, sentenced to youth service in three Swedish cities were conducted on Zoom. RESULTS: The results showed an equal distribution of all identity statuses within the group. Thematic analysis of their stories about crime and conviction showed that delinquency was described in terms of exploration and commitment, although commitment appeared more clearly. Social relations, in particular peers, played an important role in both committing as well as desisting from delinquency. In terms of narrative processes, the stories contained elements of agency, although diminishing of one's own capability and/or responsibility was common, and meaning making, mostly lesson learning, usually pertained to behaviors, interactional rules, or norms. CONCLUSION: These findings point to the importance of viewing delinquency among young women in a social and developmental context, where delinquency may be a part of the process of identity formation. Interventions focusing on expressing needs of belonging as well as finding oneself in more adaptive ways are warranted, where supporting pro-social relations and contexts is a suggested focus.

The Effects of Childhood Adversity and Self-Regulation on the Well-Being of Adults with Delinquency Histories: A Mediation Model.

PURPOSE: Most youth with delinquency histories experience childhood adversity leaving them vulnerable to poor adult well-being. Previous research indicates that self-regulation difficulties could explain how childhood adversity affects adult well-being. Yet, very few studies target adult self-regulation intervention. Therefore, this study examined the intervening effects of emerging adult self-regulation on the association between childhood adversity and adult well-being. METHOD: Using data from the first four waves of the Add Health Study, the researchers conducted structural equation modeling for mediation with bootstrapping. The researchers tested the mediation effects of emerging adult self-regulation on the association between childhood adversity (child maltreatment and violent victimization) and later adult well-being (mental health problems, alcohol and drug use, criminal behaviors) among people with delinquency histories and/or arrest prior to age 18 (N = 1,792). RESULTS: Several significant direct effects and one partial mediation effect were found. For example, child maltreatment significantly predicted adult mental health problems and criminal behaviors. Self-regulation (via the dissatisfaction with life and self subscale) mediated the association between child maltreatment and adult mental health problems. DISCUSSION: Findings highlight the need for social workers to focus on prevention services and trauma-informed treatment for people with delinquency histories. In addition, evidence-based practice requires self-regulation interventions for adults with histories of childhood adversity and delinquency to focus on their emotional and cognitive functioning as well as self-esteem. CONCLUSION: Implementing self-regulation interventions during emerging adulthood can be useful to mitigate later adult mental health problems among people with histories of childhood adversity and delinquency.

Religiosity and Associations with Substance Use and Delinquency Among Urban African American Adolescents.

Adolescent delinquency and substance use are global problems. African American adolescents are especially susceptible to the life-changing consequences of these problem behaviors. Religiosity is a notable protective factor that has been shown to mitigate these behaviors. This study uses a person-centered approach to examine the extent to which religiosity is associated with lower rates of delinquency and substance use among urban African American adolescents in the United States. Latent Class Analysis was used to examine the heterogeneity in five religiosity items among a sample of adolescents ages 13-18. After identifying religiosity classes through a class enumeration process, we examined predictors of the classes using multinomial logistic regression. The classes were then used to predict several substance use and delinquency outcomes. Three religiosity classes were identified; "low religious beliefs and engagement," (15.19%, n = 94), "religious with low active engagement," (56.70%, n = 351), and "religious with high active engagement," (28.11%, n = 174). Protective effects of religiosity on substance use (e.g., alcohol) and delinquency were found (e.g., assault). Implications for research and practice are discussed.

COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Financial Hardships and Adolescents' Adjustment: A Longitudinal Family Stress Approach.

Restrictions associated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic created a host of short- and long-term economic challenges for families. Despite their ubiquity during the early pandemic, knowledge on the developmental impacts of pandemic-related financial hardships on adolescents' adjustment is lacking. Guided by family stress and life course perspectives, this study investigated direct and indirect relations between pandemic-related financial hardships and adolescents' later depressive symptoms, delinquency, and academic performance via parents' depressive symptoms and acceptance. Data were drawn from three waves of a longitudinal study; participants completed online surveys at Wave 1, COVID-19 Wave (seven months later) and Wave 2 (five months later). Participants were two adolescent-aged siblings (n = 1364; 50% female; Mage = 14.45, SD = 1.55 years) and one parent (n = 682; 85% female; Mage = 45.15, SD = 5.37 years) from 682 families (N = 2048). Structural equation modeling results indicated that pandemic-related financial hardships were indirectly linked to greater adolescent delinquency and lower academic performance by adversely shaping parents' mental health and parent-adolescent relationship quality. The findings highlight financial hardships as critical family stressors for adolescent adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Longitudinal Links Between Parental Emotional Distress and Adolescent Delinquency: The Role of Marital Conflict and Parent-Child Conflict.

The mediating processes linking parental emotional distress and changes in adolescent delinquency over time are poorly understood. The current study examined this question using data from 457 adolescents (49.5% female; 89.5% White; assessed at ages 11, 12, and 15) and their parents, part of the national, longitudinal Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD). Maternal depression was only directly associated with changes in adolescent delinquency. Paternal depression was indirectly associated with changes in adolescent delinquency through a partner effect on mother-child conflict. The findings indicate the salience of parental depression and mother-child conflict for increases in adolescent delinquency and highlight the importance of including parental actor and partner effects for a more comprehensive understanding of the tested associations.

Lead and delinquency rates; A spatio-temporal perspective.

Juvenile delinquency has significant social costs for perpetrators, victims, and communities. To understand the distribution of delinquency offenses this study considers the spatial clustering of juvenile delinquency with lead, race, and neighborhood deprivation using a longitudinal ecological design (N = 4390) and a hierarchical model implemented in a Bayesian methodology that allows space-time interaction. The results show lead exposure is positively related to delinquency offense rates, and over time delinquency rates have become more concentrated in areas with higher levels of lead exposure and shares of Black or African American residents. The study emphasizes the isolation of neighborhoods with social problems and the importance of monitoring patterns of lead and crime at local levels as communities implement lead exposure mitigation programs.

Effects of neighborhood disadvantage and peer deviance on adolescent antisocial behavior: Testing potential interactions with age-of-onset.

Research has suggested that childhood-onset conduct problems (CPs) are more strongly related to individual predispositions, whereas adolescent-onset CP is more strongly associated with social factors, such as peer delinquency. Neighborhood disadvantage (ND) increases the risk for associating with deviant peers. Thus, peer delinquency could mediate the relationship between ND and adolescent-onset CP. This mediational hypothesis has not been tested previously. We tested this hypothesis in 1,127 justice-involved adolescent males using self-reported delinquency and official arrest records over 3 years after the youth's first arrest as outcomes. Predictors were self-reported and census-derived indicators of ND and self-reported peer delinquency. Age of onset moderated the associations between self-reported ND and arrests and between self-report of peer delinquency and arrests. In both cases, the association was stronger for those with adolescent-onset CP. Peer delinquency mediated all relationships between ND and CP. Our results also showed some unexpected differences in associations depending on whether self-reported ND or census-derived indicators were used as predictors. Specifically, census-derived ND was negatively related to self-reported offending, which could be due to the use of an arrested sample and the need for youth in more advantaged neighborhoods to show a more severe pattern of antisocial behavior to be arrested.

Assessing attentional bias to emotions in adolescent offenders and nonoffenders.

Emotional processing is a cognitive function essential for the interaction of humans with their environment and the development of adaptive behaviors. Adolescent offenders (AOs) express difficulty in cognitive processes linked to emotional processing, which is a response consistently observed during the endogenous (i.e., controlled) control of attention. Less remains understood of the extent to which such atypical responses extend beyond controlled attention and influence exogenous mechanisms (i.e., automatic). This study explores this hypothesis using the recently devised emotional Flanker paradigm. It recruited a group of 39 male AOs and 39 nonoffenders from Barranquilla, Colombia. Assessment consists of an emotional Flanker paradigm administered along with traditional neurocognitive and social cognition tasks. The AOs displayed the well-known attentional bias to threat and a relatively atypical response to emotional targets in which they detected emotions, particularly negative ones, faster than did nonoffenders. Frontal lobe functions account for these effects but not sociodemographic variables nor general cognitive abilities. The results are interpreted in light of evidence suggesting that youngsters with high levels of antisocial behaviors (e.g., callous-unemotional traits) present an enhanced orientation toward distressing stimuli, which is explained by lifelong experiences (e.g., histories of abuse). The findings suggest that environmental influences seemingly exist in the development of these traits, but additional research is required to elucidate the role of cognitive and environmental factors in the development of antisocial behavior.