Inhibition deficits of serious delinquent boys of low intelligence.

INTRODUCTION: Studies have shown that low intelligence (IQ) and delinquency are strongly associated. This study focuses on inhibitory deficits as the source for the association between low IQ and delinquency. Further, the authors explore whether serious delinquent boys with a low IQ are exposed to more risk factors than serious delinquent boys with an average to high IQ. They also examine the extent to which low IQ and higher IQ serious delinquents incurred contact with the juvenile court because of their delinquent behaviour. METHODS: Cross-sectional and longitudinal data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study were used to constitute four groups of boys: low IQ serious delinquents (n = 39), higher IQ serious delinquents (n = 149), low IQ non-to-moderate delinquents (n = 21) and higher IQ non-to-moderate delinquents (n = 219). RESULTS: Low IQ serious delinquents committed more delinquent acts than higher IQ serious offenders. Low IQ serious delinquent boys also exhibited the highest levels of cognitive and behavioural impulsivity. There were no differences between low IQ and higher IQ serious delinquents on measures of empathy and guilt feelings. Instead, elevations on these characteristics were associated with serious offenders as a whole. Compared with higher IQ serious delinquents, low IQ serious delinquents were exposed to more risk factors, such as low academic achievement, being old for grade, depressed mood and poor housing. CONCLUSIONS: Inhibition deficits appear important in the aetiology of delinquency, especially among low IQ boys. Serious delinquent boys are all impulsive, but the higher IQ serious delinquents seem to have a better cognitive control system. Interventions aimed at low IQ boys should focus on the remediation of behavioural impulsivity as well as cognitive impulsivity.

Stages and sequences of initiation and regular substance use in a longitudinal cohort of black and white male adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined whether developmental sequences and stages of substance-use initiation and regular use differed and, if so, whether they varied for black and white adolescent males. METHOD: The analyses were based on a cohort of inner-city boys in the Pittsburgh public schools, who had been followed prospectively from ages 7 to 19 across 18 data waves (N = 412). RESULTS: Blacks were most likely to end initiation of any use and regular use with marijuana, whereas alcohol and tobacco were the most common end stage drugs for whites. Whites were also more likely than blacks to initiate and to become regular users of hard drugs. For both races, the typical developmental sequence for substance-use initiation and regular use was alcohol and/or tobacco, then marijuana, and then hard drugs. However, blacks were more likely to deviate from this sequence than were whites. Participants who initiated any substance use faced a high probability of becoming a regular user of at least one substance. CONCLUSIONS: There were differences in the sequences and stages of substance-use initiation and regular use by race. Further research is needed to identify the antecedents of escalation to regular use and progression of regular use across substances and to delineate the cultural and environmental factors that affect substance-use progression.

Block observations of neighbourhood physical disorder are associated with neighbourhood crime, firearm injuries and deaths, and teen births.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To provide reliability information for a brief observational measure of physical disorder and determine its relation with neighbourhood level crime and health variables after controlling for census based measures of concentrated poverty and minority concentration. DESIGN: Psychometric analysis of block observation data comprising a brief measure of neighbourhood physical disorder, and cross sectional analysis of neighbourhood physical disorder, neighbourhood crime and birth statistics, and neighbourhood level poverty and minority concentration. SETTING: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US (2000 population=334 563). PARTICIPANTS: Pittsburgh neighbourhoods (n=82) and their residents (as reflected in neighbourhood level statistics). MAIN RESULTS: The physical disorder index showed adequate reliability and validity and was associated significantly with rates of crime, firearm injuries and homicides, and teen births, while controlling for concentrated poverty and minority population. CONCLUSIONS: This brief measure of neighbourhood physical disorder may help increase our understanding of how community level factors reflect health and crime outcomes.

The prediction of violence and homicide in young men.

In this prospective study, the authors predicted violence and homicide in 3 representative school samples (N = 1,517). Participants were part of a longitudinal, multiple cohort study on the development of delinquency in boys from late childhood to early adulthood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Thirty-three participants were convicted of homicide, 193 participants were convicted of serious violence, whereas another 498 participants self-reported serious violence. Predictors of violence included risk factors in the domains of child, family, school, and demographic characteristics. Boys with 4 or more violence risk factors were 6 times more likely to later commit violence in comparison with boys with fewer than 4 risk factors (odds ratio [OR] = 6.05). A subset of risk factors related to violence also predicted homicide among violent offenders. Boys with 4 or more risk factors for homicide were 14 times more likely to later commit homicide than violent individuals with fewer than 4 risk factors (OR = 14.48). Implications for the prevention of violence and homicide are discussed.

Desistance from persistent serious delinquency in the transition to adulthood.

Many delinquent youth stop offending sometime in late adolescence or early adulthood. However, little is known about individual differences in desistance and which factors promote or inhibit desistance. In the current study, young males in the oldest sample of the Pittsburgh Youth Study were followed from ages 13 to 25. About one-third became persistent serious delinquents between ages 13 and 19. Out of that group, almost 40% desisted in serious offending between ages 20 and 25. Significantly more of the desisters, compared to the persisters in serious delinquency, had been employed or in school. Bivariate analyses demonstrated many predictors of desistance of serious delinquency in early adulthood in the domains of individual, family, and peer factors measured from early adolescence onward. Multiple regression analyses showed that the following promotive factors were associated with desistance: low physical punishment by parents in early adolescence and being employed or in school in early adulthood. The following risk factors were inversely associated with desistance during early adulthood: serious delinquency during late adolescence, hard drug use, gang membership, and positive perception of problem behavior in early adulthood. The article discusses the implications of promotive and risk factors for preventive interventions.

How many of the offspring born to teenage fathers are produced by repeated serious delinquents?

INTRODUCTION: Recent studies have found an association between teenage fatherhood and delinquency. Yet, it is not clear whether there is a dose response relationship between the severity of delinquency and teenage fatherhood. This paper quantifies the public health impact of serious delinquency on the risk of impregnation and teenage fatherhood among urban, adolescent males. METHODS: Using data up to age 19, rates of sexual activity, impregnation and fatherhood are compared among three groups: minor/non-delinquents, moderate delinquents and repeat serious delinquents. RESULTS: The results demonstrate a dose response relationship between delinquency and age of onset of sexual activity, whereby more serious delinquents began having sex at younger ages. By age 19, almost half of repeat serious delinquents (46.7%) had caused a pregnancy, and nearly a third (31.4%) had fathered children. Rates of impregnation and fatherhood were twice as high among repeat serious delinquents compared with moderate and minor/non-delinquents. Repeat serious delinquents were also more likely than others to father multiple children; of the children produced by teenage fathers in this study, almost two-thirds (65%) were fathered by repeat serious delinquents. During late adolescence, repeat serious delinquents continued to be at greater risk for fathering children, as they were continuing to have unsafe sex more frequently and with more partners. CONCLUSIONS: Repeat serious delinquents comprise a crucial but hard-to-reach population for family planning services and parenthood education. Programmes and services for teenage pregnancy prevention need extra funding and efforts to address this population, in terms of both the primary prevention of pregnancy and the prevention of repeat pregnancies.

Risk and promotive effects in the explanation of persistent serious delinquency in boys.

Risk and promotive effects were investigated as predictors of persistent serious delinquency in male participants of the Pittsburgh Youth Study (R. Loeber, D. P. Farrington, M. Stouthamer-Loeber, & W. B. van Kammen, 1998), living in different neighborhoods. Participants were studied over ages 13-19 years for the oldest sample and 7-13 years for the youngest sample. Risk and promotive effects were studied in 6 domains: child behavior, child attitudes, school and leisure activities, peer behaviors, family functioning, and demographics. Regression models improved when promotive effects were included with risk effects in predicting persistent serious delinquency. Disadvantaged neighborhoods, compared with better neighborhoods, had a higher prevalence of risk effects and a lower prevalence of promotive effects. However, predictive relations between risk and promotive effects and persistent serious delinquency were linear and similar across neighborhood socioeconomic status.