The Path from Childhood Behavioural Disorders to Felony Offending: Investigating the Role of Adolescent Drinking, Peer Marginalization, and School Failure

Background

Although a pathway from childhood behavioural disorders to criminal offending is well-established, the aetiological processes remain poorly understood. Also, it is not clear if attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is predictive of crime in the absence of comorbid disruptive behaviour disorder (DBD).

Hypothesis

We examined two research questions: (1) Does ADHD have a unique effect on the risk of criminal offending, independently of DBD? (2) Is the effect of childhood behavioural disorders on criminal offending direct or mediated by adolescent processes related to school experience, substance misuse, and peers?

Method

Structural equation modelling, with latent variables, was applied to longitudinally collected data on 4,644 males from the 1986 Northern Finland Birth Cohort Study.

Results

Both ADHD and DBD separately predicted felony conviction risk. Most of these effects were mediated by adolescent alcohol use and low academic performance. The effect of DBD was stronger and included a direct pathway to criminal offending.

Conclusion

Findings were more consistent with the life course mediation hypothesis of pathways into crime, in that the effects of each disorder category were mediated by heavy drinking and educational failure. Preventing these adolescent risk outcomes may be an effective approach to closing pathways to criminal behaviour among behaviourally disordered children. However, as there was some evidence of a direct pathway from DBD, effective treatments targeting this disorder are also expected to reduce criminal offending.

Below:  Structural Equation Model (Standardised Path Estimates are Reported)

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/SoVWGH

  

By:  Jukka Savolainen, W. Alex Mason, Jonathan D. Bolen, Mary B. Chmelka, Tuula Hurtig, Hanna Ebeling, Tanja Nordström, and Anja Taanila

Jukka Savolainen, School of Criminology and CriminalJustice, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 321 Nebraska Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0561, USA, Phone 402-472-3677, FAX 402-472-6758

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Verbal Ability and Persistent Offending: A Race-Specific Test of Moffitt's Theory

Theoretical questions linger over the applicability of the verbal ability model to African Americans and the social control theory hypothesis that educational failure mediates the effect of verbal ability on offending patterns. 

Accordingly, this paper investigates whether verbal ability distinguishes between offending groups within the context of Moffitt's developmental taxonomy. Questions are addressed with longitudinal data spanning childhood through young-adulthood from an ongoing national panel, and multinomial and hierarchical Poisson models (over-dispersed). 

In multinomial models, low verbal ability predicts membership in a life-course-persistent-oriented group relative to an adolescent-limited-oriented group. Hierarchical models indicate that verbal ability is associated with arrest outcomes among White and African American subjects, with effects consistently operating through educational attainment (high school dropout). 

The results support Moffitt's hypothesis that verbal deficits distinguish adolescent-limited- and life-course-persistent-oriented groups within race as well as the social control model of verbal ability.

[More on Moffitt's Theory:  https://goo.gl/yRsukX]

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By:  Bellair PE1, McNulty TL2, Piquero AR3.

• 1Paul Bellair (Ph.D., University at Albany, State University of New York) is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at The Ohio State University. His current research tests theoretical explanations for race differences in violence and recidivism, tests theory pertaining to the effect of verbal ability on delinquency, and examines the social networks and employment experiences of prisoners.
• 2Thomas McNulty is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Georgia. His specialty areas include criminology, urban sociology, and research methods. His most recent work focuses on developing and testing multilevel theoretical models of racial and ethnic differences in crime/violence, with emphasis on the role of individual differences within the context of family, school, and neighborhood environments.
• 3Alex Piquero is Ashbel Smith Professor of Criminology at the University of Texas at Dallas, Adjunct Professor Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice, and Governance, Griffith University Australia, Faculty Affiliate, Center for Violence and Injury Prevention George Warren Brown School of Social Work Washington University in St. Louis, and Co-Editor, Journal of Quantitative Criminology. His research interests include criminal careers, criminological theory, and quantitative research methods. He has received several research, teaching, and mentoring awards and is Fellow of both the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. 
• Justice Q. 2016;33(3):455-480. Epub 2014 May 21.

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Is Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder Associated with Reductions in Criminal Offending? A National Data Linkage Cohort Study in England

BACKGROUND:

This is the first English national study of change in criminal offending following treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD).

METHODS:

All adults treated for AUD by all publicly funded treatment services during April 2008-March 2009 (n=53,017), with data linked to the Police National Computer (April 2006-November 2011). Pre-treatment offender sub-populations were identified by Latent Profile Analysis. The outcome measure was the count of recordable criminal offences during two-year follow-up after admission. A mixed-effects, Poisson regression modelled outcome, adjusting for demographics and clinical information, the latent classes, and treatment exposure covariates.

RESULTS:

Twenty-two percent of the cohort committed one or more offences in the two years pre-treatment (n=11,742; crude rate, 221.5 offenders per 1000). During follow-up, the number of offenders and offences fell by 23.5% and 24.0%, respectively (crude rate, 69.4 offenders per 1000). During follow-up, a lower number of offences was associated with: completing treatment (adjusted incident rate ratio [IRR] 0.82; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.79-0.85); receiving inpatient detoxification (IRR 0.84; CI 0.80-0.89); or community pharmacological therapy (IRR 0.89; CI 0.84-0.96). Reconviction was reduced in the sub-population characterised by driving offences (n=1,140; 11.7%), but was relatively high amongst acquisitive (n=768; 58.3% reconvicted) and violent offending sub-populations (n=602; 77.6% reconvicted).

CONCLUSIONS:

Reduced offending was associated with successful completion of AUD treatment and receiving inpatient and pharmacological therapy, but not enrolment in psychological and residential interventions. Treatment services (particularly those providing psychological therapy and residential care) should be alert to offending, especially violent and acquisitive crime, and enhance crime reduction interventions.

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By:  Willey H1, Eastwood B2, Gee IL3, Marsden J4.

• 1Alcohol, Drug and Tobacco Division, Health and Wellbeing Directorate, Public Health England, United Kingdom.
• 2Alcohol, Drug and Tobacco Division, Health and Wellbeing Directorate, Public Health England, United Kingdom; Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London,United Kingdom.
• 3Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom.
• 4Alcohol, Drug and Tobacco Division, Health and Wellbeing Directorate, Public Health England, United Kingdom; Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London,United Kingdom. Electronic address: john.marsden@kcl.ac.uk. 
• Drug Alcohol Depend. 2016 Jan 29. pii: S0376-8716(16)00048-X. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.01.020. 

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