Aggressive delinquency is a
salient social problem for many North American Indigenous (American Indian,
Canadian First Nations) communities, and can have deleterious consequences
later in life. Yet there is a paucity of research on Indigenous delinquency. Group-based
trajectory modeling is used to prospectively examine trajectories of aggressive
delinquency over the course of adolescence using data from 646 Indigenous
adolescents from a single culture, spanning the ages of 10-19.
Five aggression
trajectory groups were identified, characterized by different levels and ages
of onset and desistence: non-offenders (22.1%), moderate desistors (19.9%),
adolescent-limited offenders (22.2%), high desistors (16.7%), and chronic
offenders (19.2%). Using the social development model of antisocial behavior,
we selected relevant risk and protective factors predicted to discriminate
among those most and least likely to engage in more aggressive behavior.
Higher
levels of risk (i.e., parent rejection, delinquent peers, substance use, and
early dating) in early adolescence were associated with being in the two groups
with the highest levels of aggressive delinquency. Positive school adjustment,
the only significant protective factor, was associated with being in the lowest
aggression trajectory groups.
The results provide important information that
could be used in developing prevention and intervention programs, particularly
regarding vulnerable ages as well as malleable risk factors. Identifying those
youth most at risk of engaging in higher levels of aggression may be key to
preventing delinquency and reducing the over-representation of Indigenous youth
in the justice system.
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By:
- 1Department of Sociology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.
- 2Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska.
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