Page 79 - Encyclopedia of Nursing Research

46 n CHILD DELInQUEnTS

responsibility, ranging from 6 to 10 years. (Snyder, Espiritu, Huizinga, Loeber, &
These states have established a presumption Petechunk, 2003), and risk factors operate in
C of incapacity for children under the estab- multiple domains: the individual child, the
lished minimum age, declaring that they are child’s family, the peer group, the school, the
incapable of understanding the wrongful- neighborhood, and the media. It is generally
ness of their behaviors. The other states that agreed that early on in a child’s life, the most
have not set a minimum age for delinquency important risks stem from individual fac-
rely on the common law definition to estab- tors (e.g., birth complications, temperament)
lish 7 years of age as the minimum age for and family factors (e.g., parental antisocial
delinquency. The root of this common law or criminal behavior ,poor child-rearing
presumes incapacity to protect children from practices). As the child moves through to
criminal prosecution. Known as the infancy adolescence, risk factors related to peer influ-
defense, this presumption can be rebut- ences, school, and community begin to play
ted by proof that the child understands the a larger role.
act and knows that it was wrong (Kaban & Large national specialized studies of
orlando, 2008). child delinquency in the United States are
A Study Group on very Young offenders lacking (Snyder et al., 2003). The data that are
convened by the office of Juvenile Justice and reported on child delinquents rely on self-
Delinquency Prevention defined child delin- report data from three longitudinal studies of
quents as children between 7 and 12 years the causes and correlates of delinquency: the
who had committed a delinquent act (an Denver Youth Survey, the Rochester Youth
act that would be a crime if committed by Development Study, and the Pittsburgh
an adult). This was differentiated from dis- Youth Study (Loeber, Wei, Stouthamer-
ruptive nondelinquent behavior, which Loeber, Huizinga, & Thornberry, 1999). The
was defined by the American Psychiatric analyses of these data reveal some interesting
Association (2000) as a recurrent pattern of findings critical to our understanding about
negativistic, defiant, disobedient, and hos- these child delinquents. Among both sam-
tile behavior toward others lasting at least ples, some forms of aggressive behavior (hit-
6 months during childhood and adolescence. ting, fighting, and physical attacks) appeared
The study group then classified child delin- to be normal before the age of 13 years. Initial
quents into three categories: serious child involvement in serious violence generally
delinquents who had committed one or more did not occur until ages 11 years or later, and
criminal acts—homicide, aggravated assault, prevalence rates declined as the seriousness
robbery, rape, or serious arson; other child of the violence increased (Snyder et al., 2003).
delinquents—all other children excluding These children reported substantially less
the serious delinquent group; and children involvement in other types of offenses, par-
showing persistent disruptive behavior ticularly for females.
(including truancy and incorrigibility) who Self-report information from childhood
are at risk of offending (Loeber et al., 2003). through adolescence indicated that much of
It has long been known that aspects of the involvement in delinquent behaviors was
childhood coupled with children’s exposure limited to childhood. For those involved in
to certain risk and protective factors influ- serious violence, most (40%) were involved for
ence the likelihood of children becoming 2 years or less. only a few (25%) were involved
delinquent at a young age. Most profession- for 5 years or more. violence and drug use
als agree that no single risk factor leads a was among the most common offense pattern
young child to delinquency. There is a devel- (Huizinga, Loeber, Thornberry, & Cothern,
opmental aspect to childhood delinquency 2000). Similar findings held for most other