What Becomes of Chronic Juvenile Delinquents? Multifinality at Midlife

Abstract

Popular in the field of developmental psychopathology, multifinality means that an initial condition or status can manifest in diverse outcomes across life. Using a near population of federal correctional clients selected from the Midwestern United States, the current study examined the association of chronic delinquent offender status on assorted life outcomes at midlife (average age of offenders was nearly 44 years). Although just 16% of the current offenders were formerly chronic delinquents, they accounted for 13.9% of current employment, 54.6% of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) cases, 54% of those at the 90th percentile for arrest charges, 45.8% of those at the 90th percentile for assaultive arrest charges, 53% of gang activity, 43.8% of lifetime traumatic brain injury, and 22.9% of lifetime mental illness. Logistic regression models indicated that former chronic delinquency was associated with 41% reduced odds of employment, 897% increased odds of ASPD, 81% increased odds of 90th percentile offending, 82% increased odds of 90th percentile assaultive offending, 144% increased odds of gang activity, 115% increased odds of traumatic brain injury, and 141% increased odds of lifetime mental illness. Former chronic delinquency has more consistent predictive validity among males than females and among Whites than African Americans. Multifinality is a useful concept to understand the developmental course of chronic delinquency and assess noncriminal yet nevertheless socially and societally burdensome outcomes.

Motivations for adolescent offending and truancy from school: retrospective interviews with adults recently released from a custodial prison sentence in England

“…With regard to the type of offence committed, adolescents who committed robberies (40.3%) and fraud (39.4%) were those most likely to reoffend. Similar gradual upward trends in juvenile delinquency, offending and recidivism rates are also observed elsewhere in the world, including throughout North America ( Drury et al., 2020 ; Snyder, 2005 ), South East Asia ( Shagufta et al., 2015 ; Sherretts and Willmott, 2016 ) and Eastern Europe ( Debowska et al., 2015 ; Rode, 2014 ). Together, these figures highlight a growing issue faced by the criminal justice system in reducing juvenile delinquency and adolscent offending.…”

Extending the Marijuana Gateway Hypothesis Beyond Drug Use to Violent Offending: Examining Dual Systems Imbalance as a Mediator

“…In identifying gateway processes as relevant outside of the typical substance use contexts, this may indicate the potential for future research to identify additional antisocial behaviors that may be predicted by early marijuana use initiation among JIY. Considering the relatively high risk for chronic offending by youth in this population and how early onset can exacerbate this risk (Drury et al, 2020; Jones et al, 2001; Livingston et al, 2008), general offending outcomes may be another area where future research may identify gateway processes. This may be particularly important considering that dual systems model constructs have been found to be relevant for predicting general offending among JIY (Wojciechowski, 2020a).…”

Action Research in a Juvenile Detention School: New Processes, Paradigms, and Possibilities

“…As a group, juvenile delinquents have poor social skills, weak social relationships, and lack of persistence on academic tasks which cause problems for many juveniles continuing throughout adulthood (Donges, 2015;Drury, DeLisi, & Elbert, 2020). Students with adverse childhood experiences and maladaptive personality traits had more severe crimes and at a higher rate, often into adulthood (Levenson et al, 2017;Perez, Jennings, & Baglivio, 2018).…”