Past research has demonstrated an association between financial hardships and risk-taking behaviors (defined as delinquent or transgressive acts). However, this effect may differ based upon the provision of protective spaces, like those offered in extracurricular activities. In the current study, we examined the longitudinal effect of financial…

This study explored racial differences in internalizing and externalizing problems among minority adolescents in impoverished urban communities. The study centered on a sample of 211 participants who were engaged in the 2018 Building Resilience Against Violence Engagement (BRAVE) programs. Their internalizing and externalizing problems were…

This Research Brief provides an updated synthesize of current research on effective and promising approaches to the prevention of delinquency and youth diversion from the juvenile justice system. The move away from incarcerating youth to more community-based rehabilitative models requires the funding and implementation of research-based approaches…

In 1973, British Columbia (B.C.) became the first province in Canada to forbid corporal punishment in public schools (B.C. School Act), followed by the majority of the other provinces. Alberta and Manitoba however, still have no provincially enacted legal prohibition, although many school boards have updated their policies to state that corporal…

We examined antisocial adolescents' perceptions of the importance of and their ability to accomplish positive life outcomes (e.g., employment) and avoid negative ones (e.g., arrests) during their transition from adolescence to young adulthood. Participants were 1,354 adolescents from the Pathways to Desistance project, a multisite longitudinal…

Developmental taxonomies of crime disagree on whether distinctive offender trajectories are related to common or unique risks. This study examined childhood risks of differing arrest trajectories across childhood through early adulthood (from ages 10-11 to 26-27 years) that were identified in prior work for 203 at-risk, predominantly Caucasian…

Communities across the country have a vested interest in making sure that young people develop into healthy productive citizens and avoid behaviors that can jeopardize their own health and well-being and threaten the well-being of their families and neighborhoods as well. Substance abuse and delinquency are prime examples of behaviors that get in…

There is a need for proactive support and early intervention to meet the needs of behaviorally at-risk students. There is limited opportunity to intervene with effective results, given that stability of antisocial behavior increases dramatically over time. Moreover, if antisocial behavior patterns are not addressed early on, these children tend to…

Recent advances in the field of prevention have led to a deeper understanding of the causes of adolescent problem behavior and to the identification of efficacious strategies to prevent delinquency, drug use, and other antisocial conduct. This 2009 Aaron Rosen lecture to members of the "Society for Social Work and Research" traces the evolution of…

The present paper is an overview of studies examining the way family influences the development of delinquency in adolescents. The review focused on published papers dealing with the association of adolescent delinquency and their families. The association between family practices and juvenile delinquency, with potent predictive value is…

Background: Mentoring has drawn substantial interest from policymakers, intervention theorists, and those interested in identifying promising and useful evidence-based approaches to interventions for criminal justice and child welfare outcomes (Grossman & Tierney, 1998; Jekliek et al., 2002). Mentoring is one of the most commonly-used…

The theme of this issue--discovering virtues in delinquents--is an excellent reminder of the power of perception. "Virtue" and "delinquents" are two words that do not seem to belong in the same sentence, and by positioning them together, one is challenged to perceive them in a different way. What one often fails to recognize is that seeing a…

Data from male participants in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health are used to examine childhood predictors of late adolescent and early adulthood sexually coercive behavior and adolescent mediators of these relationships. A path analysis shows that experiencing sexual abuse as a child has a direct effect on perpetrating…

This study addresses the longitudinal relationships between three kinds of moral cognitions--self-serving cognitive distortions, moral judgment, perception of community--and antisocial behavior in young adolescents. Aims were to gain insight in direct and indirect relationships, stability, and causality. The sample included 724 students (M age =…

Much research is now available on the effectiveness of prevention measures for antisocial behavior problems and crime in childhood and adolescence. This article systematically reviews the results of 26 reviews and meta-analyses summarizing over a thousand controlled studies on social skills training, parent training, early interventions, and…