Socioeconomic disadvantage and psychological deficits: pathways from early cumulative risk to late-adolescent criminal conviction
File(s)
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Early exposure to multiple risk factors has been shown to predict criminal offending, but the mechanisms responsible for this association are poorly understood. Integrating social-environmental and dispositional theories of crime this research investigated the capacity of family socioeconomic disadvantage and individual psychological deficits to mediate the association between childhood cumulative risk and late adolescent criminal convictions. Male participants in the 1986 Northern Finland Birth Cohort Study (n = 3414) were followed from the prenatal period through age 19–20. The data were analyzed by estimating a structural equation model of the hypothesized pathways. The results found support for both processes of influence, and the model sustained a statistically significant direct effect of cumulative risk on crime. Socioeconomic disadvantage and psychological deficits contribute to criminal offending independently and with roughly equal magnitude. The results point to the utility of both environmental and psychological interventions to prevent criminality among children at risk.
Date Issued
2018-06-01
Date Acceptance
2018-02-22
Citation
Journal of Adolescence, 2018, 65, pp.16-24
ISSN
0140-1971
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
16
End Page
24
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Adolescence
Volume
65
Copyright Statement
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000432512300003&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Social Sciences
Psychology, Developmental
Psychology
Cumulative risk
Criminality
Economic disadvantage
Psychological deficits
Finland
PROBLEM BEHAVIOR
ACADEMIC-PERFORMANCE
PROTECTIVE FACTORS
DELINQUENCY
CONTEXT
CRIME
SCHOOL
NEIGHBORHOODS
COMPLETION
TEACHERS
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-03-06