Despite recent reports that juvenile crime has leveled off, the rates and types of offenses committed by juveniles continue to be of concern In particular, rates of aggressive offenses perpetrated by juveniles continue to be astounding. Researchers have a long history of examining juvenile delinquency in an attempt to determine which factors might put children at risk. Typical factors examined include ethnicity, family variables, history of substance abuse, intellectual abilities, and academic achievement. Delinquency has been measured in numerous ways including self-reports to determine the number and type of delinquent acts committed and official records of delinquency, such as legal history. Unfortunately, most studies have analyzed their data using delinquents as a homogeneous group, without examining possible differences in risk factors based on the level or seriousness of the acts involved. The current study examined samples of aggressive and non-aggressive juvenile offenders in an effort to develop a prediction model of offending. Developmental level and gender were among the variables considered. No single variable was found to predict aggression reliably within the total sample of offenders. A combination of four individual factors (substance-related diagnosis, age at first offense, drugs sold, and impulse control disorders) explained a significant amount of variance, however, they were found to have poor predictive value. A total risk variable was compiled by simply adding together the total number of known risk factors for each participant. This procedure resulted in correct prediction of aggression for one-third of the available sample. Subsamples of offenders were also examined. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed / acase@tulane.edu
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TULANE/oai:http://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/:tulane_23588 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Contributors | Venezia, Melissa Gayle (Author), Moely, Barbara (Thesis advisor) |
| Publisher | Tulane University |
| Source Sets | Tulane University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Access requires a license to the Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) database., Copyright is in accordance with U.S. Copyright law |
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