Risk Profiles, Trajectories and Intervention Points for Serious and Chronic Young Offenders


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RISK PROFILES, TRAJECTORIES, AND INTERVENTION POINTS FOR SERIOUS 
AND CHRONIC YOUNG OFFENDERS 

 
 
 
 

Raymond Corrado and Lauren Freedman 
 
 
 
 

 
 Abstract: One of the lesser understood research issues about antisocial onset and 
 persistence is whether there are different patterns of risk factors within the broader 
 identified pathways that require distinctive treatment strategies. This article hypothesizes 
 that there are at least five distinct pathways to persistent antisocial behaviour. The 
 pathways are premised upon the developmental perspective and suggest that the 
 experiences of individuals and their exposure to subsequent risk factors are affected by 
 the earliest risk factors to which the individual is exposed. From a policy perspective, 
 development of these pathways focuses on the goal of preventing antisocial onset, or to 
 reduce the likelihood that behaviours will become progressively antisocial, while 
 concurrently encouraging desistance. A key objective is to inform policy-makers about 
 possible program intervention points for specific sets of risk factors, utilizing programs 
 that have already been identified as successful, and developing new experimental 
 programs. 
 
 Key Words: young offender, pathway models, intervention, serious offending, chronic 
 offending, violent offending 
  

 

 

 

 
 
Raymond Corrado, Ph.D. is Professor in the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University, 
Vancouver (Burnaby), British Columbia, Canada. 
 
Lauren Freedman, M.A. is a Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University. 

 
 
 
 



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By the time they reach adolescence, most youth who are involved in the criminal justice 

system have been exposed to a multitude of risk factors for serious antisocial behaviour, 
including violence. A dominant related research theme is that risk factors can accumulate with 
age and, as the individual transitions through developmental stages, the accumulated risk factors 
can mitigate the success of interventions (Loeber, Keenan, & Zhang, 1997; Lober & LeBlanc, 
1990; Stouthamer-Loeber, Loeber, Stallings, & Lacourse, 2008; Moffitt, 1993; Farrington & 
Welsh, 2007; Sampson & Laub, 1993). Another important research theme is the considerable 
increase in the number of risk factors identified especially during the initial developmental stages 
including pregnancy, birth, infancy, and early childhood. Also, more recent advances in genetic 
and epigenetic research have added even more complex arrays of risk. Much of the theory 
development and debate about serious and violent offending among adolescents and adults, 
therefore, has focused on the identification of developmental pathway models associated with 
short- and long-term criminal trajectories. However, one of the research issues less understood is 
whether there are different patterns of risk factors within these identified pathways that require 
distinctive treatment strategies. The distinguishing feature of more specified pathways is that the 
first major risk factor experienced by the individual affects both the exposure to additional risk 
factors and how these risk factors are managed in terms of interventions throughout subsequent 
developmental stages. We suggest that there are at least five distinct pathways for serious and 
violent young offenders that require different intervention strategies. These pathways begin with 
the following respective initial major risk factors: prenatal risk exposure, extreme child 
maltreatment, childhood personality disorder, extreme temperament, and adolescent onset (see 
Figures 1 to 5). 

  
Although these pathways are distinct, risk factors often overlap among pathways. Yet it is 

the sequencing of these risk factors that affects the differences in how and why individuals 
within each pathway experience them. For example, poor school performance is associated with 
antisocial behaviour (Hemphill, Toumbourou, Herrenkohl, McMorris, & Catalano, 2006; 
Corrado, Cohen, & Watkinson, 2008; Weerman, Harland, & van der Laan, 2007; Loeber, 
Farrington, & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1998), but various types of youth may demonstrate poor 
school performance for different reasons. Youth with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), 
for example, experience difficulty excelling in the classroom because of neuro-cognitive deficits 
(Streissguth et al., 2004). In contrast, negative classroom experiences of youth who have been 
extremely maltreated but do not have neuro-cognitive deficits are more likely explained by the 
emotional disorientation and stress caused by transfers arising from placement in foster care 
(Newton, Litrownik, & Landsverk, 2000). Obviously, the treatment strategies for these two 
pathways are substantially different since FASD is associated with neuro-cognitive disorders and 
typically requires long-term school and home-based program interventions, while children and 
youth who have suffered extreme trauma may not suffer from such deficits. Thus, responses for 
difficulties experienced among these latter children and youth more typically involve shorter-
term interventions focused on stabilizing the foster care environment, and school-based emotion 
and social adjustment support counselling. 

  
The five pathways proposed in this article are premised upon the extensive research of 

the likely causal risk factors of serious and violent offending which were first developed from 



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the Cracow multi-problem risk management instrument for serious and violent children and 
adolescents (Corrado, Roesch, Hart, & Gierowski, 2002). The second source is the more recent 
research on samples of incarcerated serious and violent young offenders, including our 12-year 
study of over 1,000 youth incarcerated in British Columbia. The basic objective in developing 
these models is to increase the effectiveness of strategies to reduce the likelihood of children and 
adolescents with serious and violent antisocial and criminal behaviours from persisting in such 
behaviours into adulthood. These models are premised upon the notion that changes in antisocial 
behaviour are predictable, hierarchical, and orderly. They emphasize the identification of factors 
that predate antisocial onset. Another underlying assumption is that onset, aggravation, and 
desistance of violent and serious antisocial behaviour are strongly related to the vulnerability of 
individuals to specific risks that are embedded in their extant life stages (Loeber & LeBlanc, 
1990). The goal is to prevent antisocial onset, or to reduce the likelihood that behaviours will 
become progressively antisocial, while concurrently encouraging desistance. The pathway 
models are neither risk prediction nor risk management instruments, but rather are designed to 
inform policy-makers about possible program intervention points for specific sets of risk factors, 
utilizing programs that have already been identified as successful and developing new 
experimental programs. 

  
Key Variables in the Models 

 
 The five proposed pathway models highlight how and why various types of youth 
experience certain risk factors. Prior to discussing the experiences of particular types of youth 
within each pathway, a brief overview of commonly experienced risk factors across the models 
is presented and the associated outcome of serious antisocial behaviour is discussed. 
  
School Performance 

Poor academic performance, truancy, misbehaviour at school, and suspension and/or 
expulsion from school have been identified as risk factors for both general and violent antisocial 
behaviour (Hemphill et al., 2006; Margo, 2008; Farrington, Loeber, Jolliffe, & Pardini, 2008; 
Wolke, Woods, Bloomfield, & Karstadt, 2000; Nishina, Juvonen, & Witkow, 2005; Henry & 
Huizinga, 2007; Weerman et al., 2007). Absence from school and poor school performance are 
common among serious and violent offenders. For example, only slightly more than half of the 
youth in a sample of incarcerated youth in British Columbia were enrolled in school at the time 
of their offence and many were already at least one academic year behind other students of the 
same age (Corrado et al., 2008). Substantial absences from school are also associated with 
increased time spent with antisocial peers in the absence of adult supervision (Hemphill et al., 
2006; Henry & Huizinga, 2007). Further, poor school performance, related learning disabilities, 
and childhood disruptive disorders are associated with serious antisocial behaviours in adulthood 
(Sundheim & Voellere, 2004). 

   
Residential Mobility 
 Residential mobility among adolescents has been linked to antisocial behaviour whether 
the youth moves with or away from the family unit. Importantly, both placement in the care of 
child protection services and instability in care (i.e., multiple shifts among placements) have 
been associated with antisocial behaviour (Alltucker, Bullis, Close, & Yovanoff, 2006; Newton 



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et al., 2000). The association between residential mobility and antisocial behaviour is explained 
partly by the increased likelihood of associating with antisocial peers and subsequent exposure to 
their routine high-risk social activities, such as substance abuse and engaging rival groups of 
youth in public places. Residentially mobile adolescents are more likely to associate with, and 
adopt the behaviours of, antisocial peers because they are more readily willing to accept new 
members than prosocial adolescents (Haynie & South, 2005; Farrington et al., 2008). Further, 
youth living independently of parents or guardians are more likely to engage in certain criminal 
behaviours (e.g., theft, prostitution, fraud) as a means of survival (Kempf-Leonard & Johansson, 
2007; Baron & Hartnagel, 1998). Once these youth begin engaging in antisocial behaviours, the 
risk of engaging in serious antisocial behaviours, particularly gang activity, increases (Kempf-
Leonard & Johansson, 2007; Cohen, 1955; Decker, Katz, & Webb, 2008; Klein & Maxson, 
2006; Kvaraceus & Miller, 1959). 
  
Antisocial Peers 

Involvement in a delinquent peer group throughout adolescence has been associated with 
increased violent behaviours (Thornberry, Lizotte, Krohn, Farnworth, & Jang, 1994; Thornberry, 
Lizotte, Krohn, Smith, & Porter, 2003; Farrington, 2005; Farrington et al., 2008). Although 
removal from such groups is associated with a decrease in violent behaviours, early and 
prolonged exposure to delinquent peers has long-lasting impacts on the development of 
persistent patterns of antisocial behaviour (Lacourse, Nagin, Tremblay, Vitaro, & Claes, 2003). 
This may be explained in relation to a potentially reciprocal relationship whereby youth 
engaging in antisocial behaviours are attracted to groups characterized by antisocial activities, 
which increases the likelihood of escalating behaviours, particularly in the context of gangs 
(Elliott & Menard, 1996; Gatti, Tremblay, Vitaro, & McDuff, 2005; Thornberry et al., 2003; 
Thornberry et al., 1994). 

 
Substance Abuse 

Adolescent substance abuse is related to high-risk behaviours, antisocial behaviour, and 
poor school performance (Farrington et al., 2008; Wiesner, Kim, & Capaldi, 2005), and is 
particularly common among incarcerated youth (Neff & Waite, 2007; Corrado & Cohen, 2002). 
In some cases, youth may engage in substance abuse as a form of self-medication to cope with 
trauma (Corrado & Cohen, 2002), or as a form of sensation-seeking as a result of low arousal 
levels (Putnins, 2006). Substance abuse may impact antisocial behaviours in three ways: Youth 
may engage in antisocial behaviours because they are under the influence of substances at the 
time of the offence; they may commit crimes to gain money to acquire substances; and/or they 
may engage in antisocial behaviours associated with the distribution of intoxicating substances 
(Goldstein, 1985). 

 
Aggressive Behaviours 

Both early and previous aggressive and antisocial behaviours have been identified as 
strong predictors of future antisocial behaviour (Hemphill et al., 2006; Huesmann, Eron, & 
Dubow, 2002; Nagin & Tremblay, 2001; Schaeffer, Petras, Ialongo, Poduska, & Kellam, 2003; 
Farrington et al., 2008). In particular, children who are disruptive in kindergarten are at an 
increased risk of frequent antisocial behaviour as they age (Lacourse et al., 2002). Persistence of 
aggressive behaviours may be related to the propensity of aggressive children and youth to 



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perceive the actions of others as hostile (Waldman, 1996), or it could be a reflection of 
ineffective socialization as a result of hostile or ineffective parenting or other family-level risk 
factors (Benzies, Keown, & Magill-Evans, 2009; Côté, Vaillancourt, LeBlanc, Nagin, & 
Tremblay, 2006; Tremblay et al., 2004). 

 
Proposed Pathway Models 

 
Each of the five pathways will be discussed individually, focusing on three things: first, 

the prevalence of the underlying first risk factor the individual is exposed to that subsequently 
shapes future experiences and thus each pathway; second, the impact that this factor has on how 
other risk factors and behavioural problems are experienced; and third, the intervention 
techniques and considerations relevant to each pathway. 

 
1: Prenatal Risk Factors 
 

There are a variety of risk factors to which children may be exposed in utero that may 
affect the prenatal stage of development, including lead, cigarette smoke, and poor maternal 
nutrition (Mick, Biederman, Faraone, Saye, & Kleinman, 2002; Needleman, Riess, Tobin, 
Biesecker, & Greenhouse, 1996; Streissguth et al., 2004; Raine, 2004). These risk factors can 
affect the healthy development of the brain, resulting in permanent damage that may heighten the 
risk of antisocial behaviours in subsequent developmental stages. While smoking and 
malnutrition are possibly more prevalent risk factors, given the large body of research on fetal 
alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) discussion of this pathway will focus on FASD as an 
illustrative example. There is considerable evidence that exposure to alcohol, especially regular 
consumption and/or binge drinking during mid-stages of pregnancy, can result in FASD. FASD 
is causally linked to physical developmental delays, neuro-cognitive deficits including learning 
disabilities, co-morbid mental health problems throughout the life course that are generally 
associated with antisocial behaviour, and aggressive, often violent behaviours (Streissguth et al., 
2004). 

  
 Evidence of Prenatal Risk Factor Exposure among Serious and Violent Offenders 
 FASD is disproportionately evident among adolescent offender populations. For 
example, nearly one-third (30%) of youth on probation orders in Canada have been identified as 
having, or being at high risk of having, FASD (The Assante Centre for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, 
2005). FASD is also overrepresented (23%) among youth in British Columbia who have been 
remanded for psychiatric inpatient assessment (Fast, Conry, & Loock, 1999). This over-
representation is in stark contrast to the population estimates of the prevalence of FASD, which 
are extremely low; for example, it has been estimated that only 1% of all live births in the United 
States are affected by FASD (Sampson et al., 1997). 
   



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Proposed Pathway to Serious Antisocial Behaviour for Offenders Exposed to Prenatal Risk Factors 

Prenatal risk 
factor  

Poor school 
performance  

Antisocial 
peers  

Substance 
abuse  

Aggressive 
behaviours 

         

        CJS involvement 

 

 

Largely because of substantial neuro-cognitive deficits, individuals with FASD are more 
likely to engage in several antisocial behaviours that increase their exposure to a multitude of 
risk factors in the early and middle developmental stages. As children, those with FASD are at an 
increased risk for early entry into the care of child protective services and are liable to 
subsequent shifts among multiple care placements. One study found that 72% of children with 
FASD in Saskatchewan were placed in care at some point in their lives, often by the age of 2 
years, and remained in care for five years on average, during which they experienced multiple 
placement shifts (Habbick, Nanson, Snyder, Casey, & Schulman, 1996). Similar findings were 
observed in an American sample (Ernst, Grant, Streissguth, & Sampson, 1999). Not surprisingly, 
children with FASD often come under the care of child protective services in response to 
concerns over the welfare of the child (Ernst et al., 1999), which may specifically relate to 
ongoing substance abuse among their caregivers (Salmon, 2008; Kvigne et al., 2004). Persistent 
childhood aggressive behaviours cause high levels of stress for caregivers, which also helps to 
explain the disproportionate number of FASD children and youth in care (Paley, O'Connor, 
Frankel, & Marquardt, 2006; Paley, O'Connor, Kogan, & Findlay, 2005). Educational special 
needs and other social deficits also increase the likelihood that mothers and other caregivers will 
request that their FASD children be taken into care (Kvigne et al., 2004; Ernst et al., 1999). 

 
 FASD is further associated with poor school performance and school discipline problems. 
Poor school performance and disruptive behaviours in the classroom among these youth can best 
be understood in relation to neuro-cognitive deficits that impair language comprehension, 
reading, spelling, and math abilities (Mattson, Riley, Gramling, Delis, & Jones, 1998; Duquette 
& Stodel, 2005; Streissguth et al., 2004). The ability of these youth to develop and maintain peer 
relationships is hindered by their increased tendency to become frustrated and angry with their 
difficulties and inability to keep pace with other students in their classrooms. In addition, 
multiple care placements are associated with more frequent school transfers, changing family 
environments, and peer social disruptions. In a study of 415 individuals diagnosed with FASD, 
55% of adolescents and adults had been in trouble at school for disruptive behaviours, 53% had 
been suspended, 29% expelled, and 25% dropped out of school (Streissguth et al., 2004). 
 
  FASD is also associated with difficulties relating to the development of prosocial peer 
relationships because of underdeveloped, or age inappropriate, social skills. For this reason, 



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youth with FASD are more likely to associate with antisocial peers who are more likely to accept 
them and then become negative reinforcing role models (Thomas, Kelly, Mattson, & Riley, 
1998; Streissguth et al., 2004). Due to poor behavioural controls stemming from neuro-cognitive 
deficits and difficulties understanding the negative impact of antisocial behaviour, including 
substance abuse, individuals with FASD may be more susceptible to social pressures. Thus 
individuals with FASD are more likely to engage in early antisocial behaviours such as early 
onset substance abuse (Paley & O'Connor, 2009). 
  

Poor behavioural control across developmental stages among individuals with FASD is 
largely explained by the damage caused by alcohol exposure in utero, that impedes the 
development of neural structures that regulate impulsivity and aggression (Bookstein, 
Streissguth, Sampson, Connor, & Barr, 2002; Berman & Hannigan, 2000; Schonfeld, Paley, 
Frankel, & O'Conner, 2006). In effect, FASD inhibits the ability to process social cues that 
typically delay inconsiderate and inappropriate behaviours. Failure to inhibit these behaviours 
results in negative responses from others that routinely and rapidly frustrate the individual, which 
is often met with overreaction from the individual with FASD, including aggressive and violent 
responses. While FASD is associated with poor motivation, an absence of empathy, plus the 
presence of defiance, anger, and aggression, these traits are overwhelmingly explained by neuro-
cognitive deficits rather than wilful motivation (Green, 2007; Olson, Jirikowic, Kartin, & Astley, 
2007; Scott & Dewane, 2007). 

 
 Intervention 

FASD is preventable. Interventions typically focus on providing expectant mothers with 
information and incentives designed to reduce the likelihood of exposure to alcohol during 
pregnancy. There are currently no known treatments that can reverse the organic brain damage 
associated with FASD; therefore, subsequent interventions are most effective when they target 
the accumulation of additional risk factors discussed above, such as poor school performance and 
substance abuse. Given the permanency of the organic brain damage and the accumulation of 
new risk factors in subsequent developmental stages, interventions designed to reduce the impact 
of additional risk factors may be helpful to improve positive life outcomes across the life course 
(Paley & O'Connor, 2009). 

  
 Initial interventions must first determine the extent of the damage along the FASD 
spectrum at the earliest possible date with a valid assessment. Typically, this requires a family 
physician who suspects FASD, or a public health nurse or social worker who reports the 
likelihood of FASD given their awareness of the mother’s alcohol history. There are mild, 
moderate, and extreme expressions of FASD that are important in determining the most 
appropriate stage-specific interventions in the short and long term. For example, mild FASD 
children are more likely to adapt to regular daycare and preschool programs with minimum 
levels of assistance, while the more extreme cases are more likely to require specialized 
programs. The second step is the assessment of the ability of the FASD child’s family to either 
mitigate (with their own resources and those external to the family unit) or intensify the 
impulsivity and related harmful traits associated with FASD, regardless of external resources. 
  



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Regarding the former more positive family context, the interventions include providing 
the parent(s) assistance to relieve accumulated daily stress in providing developmental learning 
and discipline experiences to the child, and promoting access to appropriately resourced daycare 
facilities and schools. In the latter negative family context, where the FASD child is at high risk 
of being placed in the care of child protective services, it is critical that such families not only be 
provided with a complete set of in-house and school or community resources, but also that they 
be carefully monitored to ensure that they are consistently tending to the physical and emotional 
needs of the child. When the child is placed in care, placement stability is essential. Typically, 
the challenge for foster care providers is having both a complete understanding of the extent of 
the FASD needs of the child, and access to the internal and external resources necessary to 
effectively respond. Again, lifelong assistance to the caregiver is an important consideration so 
that even in adulthood, the provision of routine living assistance must be provided as it is needed 
for the adult to remain in the community and avoid a life threatening “street life” which is likely 
to result in negative life outcomes, including criminal justice involvement (Paley & O'Connor, 
2009; Hannigan & Bergman, 2000). 

 
 As mentioned above, the education system is another crucial intervention resource. There 
are specialized education environments that increase the learning context by reducing irritability 
and frustration, and providing for prosocial peer and teacher experiences (Paley & O'Connor, 
2009; Green, 2007). The health care system is also important not only for the initial diagnosis but 
also for the monitoring and treatment of the onset of related childhood disorders such as 
oppositional defiant, and adult co-morbid disorders often involving substance dependency. 
  
2: Childhood Personality Disorders 
 
 Personality disorders are clinical syndromes with long-lasting symptoms that negatively 
impact the way the individual interacts with the environment (American Psychiatric Association, 
2000). Although there are a variety of types of personality disorders, this pathway will focus on 
conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and early psychopathic traits because they are 
most closely associated with externalizing behavioural problems. The diagnostic criteria of 
conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder both refer to a pattern of persistent antisocial 
behaviour (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Although early identification of 
psychopathy remains controversial, psychopathic traits are associated with callous, deceptive, 
unemotional behaviour (Hare, 1993) and there is support for the identification of these traits in 
adolescence (Vincent, Odgers, McCormick, & Corrado, 2008; Corrado, Vincent, Hart, & Cohen, 
2004). 
 
 Evidence of Personality Disorders among Serious and Violent Offenders 
 Oppositional defiant disorder is estimated to be present among one in seven children by 
the age of 5 years (Sutton & Glover, 2004) and among approximately 12% of incarcerated male 
youth and 15% of incarcerated female youth (Teplin, Abram, McClelland, Dulcan, & Mericle, 
2002). This childhood personality disorder is associated with the later development of conduct 
disorder, which progresses into antisocial personality disorder in adulthood among 
approximately 40% to 70% of documented cases (Duggan, 2009). Both conduct disorder and 
antisocial personality disorder are disproportionately prevalent among incarcerated youth and 



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adult populations (Corrado, Cohen, Hart, & Roesch, 2000; Teplin et al., 2002; Fazel, Doll, & 
Långström, 2008; Compton, Conway, Stinson, Colliver, & Grant, 2005; Torgensen, Kringlen, & 
Cramer, 2001; Coid, Yang, Tyrer, Roberts, & Ullrich, 2006; Robins, Tipp, & Pryzbeck, 1991; 
Fazel & Danesh, 2002). Not uncommonly, these personality disorders predate juvenile justice 
involvement (Hirshfield, Maschi, White, Goldman-Traub, & Loeber, 2006). 
  
 Both oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder are asserted to be precursors to 
psychopathy. There is an accumulation of research indicating that while the full range of 
psychopathic traits is not convincingly evident in children and adolescents, several key 
psychopathic traits are observable in early childhood (Tremblay et al., 2005), and even more 
psychopathic traits can be identified among adolescents, especially in samples of incarcerated 
serious and violent young offenders (Corrado et al., 2004; Vincent et al., 2008). It has been 
estimated that as many as 9.4% of adolescent offenders exhibit high levels of psychopathic traits 
(Campbell & Porter, 2004). In addition to engaging in a general range of antisocial behaviours 
consistent with psychopathic traits, young offenders with this profile are also more prone to 
recidivism more quickly and more violently than young offenders without this profile (Corrado 
et al., 2004; Vincent et al., 2008). 
 
Proposed Pathway to Serious Antisocial Behaviour for Offenders with Childhood Personality Disorders1

  
 

Personality 
disorder  

Unstable 
family  

Inconsistent 
parenting  

Poor school 
performance/  

bully 
behaviour 

 Family criminality 

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

CJS 
involvement  

CIC 
placement 

 
 A chaotic family environment may increase the risk of the development of childhood 
personality disorders. Young children whose mothers experience abuse are significantly more 
likely to develop internalizing and externalizing behavioural problems (McFarlane, Groff, 
O'Brien, & Watson, 2003). Also, children in homes characterized by violence often directly 
witness abuse (Fantuzzo & Fusco, 2007). One explanation is that unstable households 
characterized by violence do not provide children with emerging personality disorders the 
routine structure necessary to develop prosocial skills. As well, parents in chaotic family 
environments characterized by violence are more likely to apply inconsistent and progressively 
harsh parenting techniques with their children who are displaying aggressive tendencies 
associated with personality disorders. In this type of environment, the opportunities for the 
development of empathy, adaptive self-regulation, and other skills that aid in the suppression of 
abnormal childhood antisocial outbursts are substantially reduced (Hill, Fonagy, & Safier, 2003). 
Specifically, regarding both oppositional tendencies and conduct problems, increasingly harsh 
parenting may aggravate the development of externalizing behaviours, because children do not 
                                                           
1 Risk factors in dotted lines have likely always been present, but take on new meaning for as others accumulate. 
 



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learn to effectively moderate their aggressive behaviours and antisocial tendencies (Tremblay et 
al., 2005; Hill et al., 2003). In addition, children reported as aggressive by their parents are more 
likely to suffer abuse, which may initiate a cycle of aggressive/abusive behaviours in the next 
developmental stage, which may involve school environments (Berger, 2005; Lemmon, 2006). 
 
 Children with personality disorders are by definition more likely to engage in authority 
conflict behaviours in the classroom, particularly with teachers. Conflict with peers, in the form 
of bullying, is also likely. Further, the above-noted pattern of inconsistent and harsh parenting 
often reflects antisocial parental attitudes, particularly towards fighting, which may normalize 
aggressive behaviours (Solomon, Bradshaw, & Wright, 2008). Together, these risk factors 
substantially increase risk of poor school performance, which is often related to general 
oppositional attitudes, disruptive behaviours, and disregard for rules and authority, thereby 
reducing access to prosocial peers and positive reinforcement from teachers, parents, and other 
authority figures (Moffitt, 1993). 
  

Children and youth with personality disorders are also more likely to be placed in child 
welfare care either because of parental abuse, parental neglect, or extreme truancy (Dodge, 
2000). Once in the care of child protective services, the aggressive behaviours of these youth 
often translate into multiple placements as caregivers express an unwillingness to expose 
themselves, and often other family members, to the persistent angry and manipulative behaviours 
of the youth (Newton et al., 2000). 

  
In later childhood and early adolescence, youth with these personality disorders are very 

likely to become involved in serious forms of antisocial behaviour, including major alcohol and 
substance abuse (Compton et al., 2005; Knop et al., 2009), primarily because of poor impulse 
control (Thapar, van den Bree, Fowler, Langley, & Whittinger, 2006). Critics have argued that 
conduct disorder is too broad a diagnostic construct (i.e., varying levels of aggressiveness and 
antisociality cover too many diverse negative attitudes and behaviours) to explain serious and 
violent antisocial behaviour or to assist clinicians in determining effectively targeted therapies 
(Frick & Dickens, 2006). However, it remains a strong predictor of violent behaviour even after 
controlling for other critical risk factors (Hodgins, Cree, Alderton, & Mak, 2007). 

  
 Intervention 

Effective treatments exist for both oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder to 
reduce the likelihood of these disorders progressing into antisocial personality disorder. The 
latter is associated with serious and violent offending into adulthood. Since the main traits 
associated with each of these personality disorders are failure to develop prosocial skills and 
moderate aggressive behaviours, the most effective intervention is training programs designed to 
teach parents to impart these positive behaviours to their children. However, an obvious 
limitation of these parental training programs occurs when parents are unable or unwilling to 
participate in such interventions, or when certain traits of the child impede the effectiveness of 
parenting training programs (e.g., extreme callousness and unemotional traits). In cases where 
parenting training programs are not effective or possible, cognitive skills training interventions 
are appropriate for children of at least 8 years of age (Duggan, 2009). 

  



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In cases where early interventions are neither attempted nor successful, interventions 
external to the home environment may reduce the likelihood that risk factors will accumulate. 
Again, school is an important intervention context, where programs may focus on enhancing 
positive learning and social experiences. Non-stigmatizing remedial programs attenuate learning 
problems and increase school performance. For the more extreme cases “alternative schools” 
provide concentrated teaching resources. Yet, it is difficult to avoid stigmatizing and further 
isolating youth in special programs, especially alternate schools, from prosocial students. 
Another challenge for this pathway is that schools in socially disorganized neighbourhoods, with 
high concentrations of economically disadvantaged and single-parent families, increase the 
likelihood that these personality disordered youth will be influenced by the pervasive presence of 
street-based informal and formal youth gangs. In other words, schools in these neighbourhoods 
have to compete with highly accessible and powerful antisocial organizations that have particular 
appeal to youth in this pathway who are searching for outlets for their aggressive and antisocial 
tendencies. Promising programs integrate remedial school and prosocial programs into the larger 
community to include churches, sports, recreational, and business organizations, thereby creating 
an interconnected and non-stigmatizing network of support. 

 
In cases where antisocial personality disorder is not prevented or in cases of psychopathy, 

behavioural management strategies must be employed. Antisocial personality disorder and 
psychopathy in particular are extremely difficult to treat and thus they require ongoing attention 
in the form of continued interventions and monitoring (Losel, 2001). However, both individuals 
with antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy tend to develop an oppositional attitude 
towards authority, thereby making them resistant to change (Tyrer, Mitchard, Methuen, & 
Ranger, 2003; Hare, 1993; Wong & Hare, 2005). Some successes in the treatment of antisocial 
personality disorder have been noted with the use of cognitive behavioural therapy (Duggan, 
2009), which is also the recommended course of treatment for individuals with psychopathy 
(Wong & Hare, 2005). It is important to note that while individuals with antisocial personality 
disorder and psychopathy can potentially learn to limit their antisocial behaviours with 
appropriate goals and maintenance, in many cases, these individuals will require long-term 
interventions and monitoring (Wong & Hare, 2005). 

  
3: Extreme Child Temperament 
 
 Temperament essentially refers to the range of behavioural responses elicited by a 
particular individual to various experiences as a result of emotional reactivity, first evident at 
four months of age (Kagan & Snidman, 2004). There are several definitions of temperament with 
most definitions stating that it is inherited, evident in early life, and stable across all 
developmental stages (Frick, 2004b). Optimal temperament reflects an ability to respond to 
events in a flexible and adaptive manner that matches the social context (Eisenberg & Morris, 
2002). However, some infants have extreme responses to novel events: High reactive children 
become tense, cry, scream, and arch their backs in an escape movement, and low reactive 
children remain physiologically unperturbed, interested, and curious (Kagan & Snidman, 2004). 
Both extremely high and low levels of emotional reactivity likely increase the risk for antisocial 
behaviour (Frick et al., 2003; Loney, Frick, Clements, Ellis, & Kerlin, 2003). 
   



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While extreme levels of emotional reactivity may be functional and positive in certain 
contexts (e.g., extreme threats), such reactions are maladaptive when they interfere with 
prosocial relationships (Cicchetti, Ackerman, & Izard, 1995). Although temperament affects 
child, adolescent, and adult behaviours, and the range of prosocial and antisocial personalities 
that develop, temperament is not deterministic of antisocial behaviour (Kagan & Snidman, 
2004). However, temperament may be understood as reflecting a spectrum with various 
psychopathologies associated with each end. Anxiety and conduct disorders are examples of high 
reactivity, while certain callous and unemotional traits, in addition to ADHD, are examples of 
low reactivity (Clark, Watson, & Mineka, 1994; Frick, 2004a). In other words, there is very 
likely a relationship between temperament type and personality disorders, but they are not the 
same and there are other factors (e.g., environmental) that also affect personality development. 

  
The separation between personality disorders and temperament is supported by studies 

controlling for the overlap in measures and definitions of temperament and psychopathologies, 
which have found that temperament alone maintains predictive associations of behaviour 
(Lemery, Essex, & Smider, 2002; Lengua, West, & Sandler, 1998). Further, although children 
with low reactivity tend to be more distractible, there is no concrete support for the association 
between low reactivity and ADHD (Kagan & Snidman, 2004). Despite the complexity of the 
conceptual distinctions between temperament and personality disorders, their probabilistic 
relationships, and the somewhat inconsistent research concerning their respective predictive 
validity regarding certain psychopathologies generally associated with antisocial behaviours, 
there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the optimal intervention strategies are separate for the 
temperament pathway and the personality disorder pathway. 

 
 Prevalence 
 Children with conduct problems have difficulty regulating their emotions (Eisenberg, 
Fabes, Guthrie, & Reiser, 2000; Eisenberg et al., 2001; Frick et al., 2003; Loney et al., 2003; 
Krueger, Caspi, Moffitt, White, & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1996; Frick, Lilienfeld, Ellis, Loney, & 
Silverthorn, 1999). Individuals with high reactivity are prone to frustration and are more likely to 
present conduct problems, while those high reactive children with difficulty regulating sadness 
are more likely to present with internalizing behaviours (Eisenberg et al., 2001; Kagan, 1994; 
Kagan & Snidman, 2004; Rosenbaum et al., 2002; Eisenberg et al., 1996). In contrast, low 
reactive children are more likely to display defiant behaviours associated with a disregard for 
consequences, which tend to be associated with externalizing behavioural problems (Kagan & 
Snidman, 2004). Both internalizing and externalizing behavioural problems are overrepresented 
among offender populations (Corrado et al., 2000; Teplin et al., 2002; Fazel et al., 2008; 
Torgensen et al., 2001; Fazel & Danesh, 2002). 
 
Proposed Pathway to Serious Antisocial Behaviour for Offenders with Extreme Child Temperament 
 

Extreme 
temperament  

Inappropriate 
parenting 

techniques 
 

Low income 
single-
parent 

 
Early 

aggressive 
behaviour 

 Antisocial behaviour 

         



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CJS 
involvement 

 CIC 
placement 

 Kicked out/ 
runs away 

 Substance 
abuse 

 

Extreme temperament, either high or low, can create negative parenting responses. 
Parents of high reactive children are more likely to have difficulty inculcating 
prosocial/normative behaviours from their children because children tend to be so emotional that 
they are not able to effectively internalize messages communicated by their parents (Kockanska, 
1993, 1995, 1997). This persistent irritability may be inaccurately perceived as inappropriate and 
wilful defiance, which can increase the likelihood of parental anger, emotional and physical 
punishment responses, which then exacerbates the child’s excitability thereby further 
encouraging aggression or withdrawal (Kagan & Snidman, 2004; Keenan & Shaw, 2003). 

  
When negative parent-child interaction is continuously repeated, particularly in early 

childhood, it can lead to a cycle of increasing parental coerciveness and punishment or parental 
accession to the child’s reactions (i.e., letting the child succeed in rejecting parental prosocial 
discipline). This cycle of negative parent-child interactions facilitates increasingly coercive 
responses from both the parent and the child, encouraging the development of antisocial response 
types from the child (Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992; Patterson, 1986; Snyder & Patterson, 
1995). Regarding parental reactions to low reactive or “easy going” children, parents often 
presume these children require little consistent and proportional discipline, which can be 
associated with their failure to learn how to delay gratification and self-regulate antisocial 
behaviours (Keenan & Shaw, 2003). In part, this occurs because parental reprimands are less 
likely to generate uncertainty, anxiety, self-disappointment, or shame. Consequently, for extreme 
low reactive children, attempts to punish or control their behaviour are often met with anger and 
tantrums. Again, if this cycle continues into subsequent developmental stages, the child may 
develop an opposition to authority (Kagan & Snidman, 2004). 

  
 Important additional risk factors in parental responses to extreme reactive children are 

low socioeconomic status (SES) and/or single-parenthood. Parents with very limited social 
support (e.g., partners, extended family or friends, and neighbours), little access to information 
concerning prosocial child rearing, and the inability to afford daycare facilities are more likely to 
have difficulties understanding, communicating, and engaging in prosocial responses to children 
(Hoff, 2003; Huttenlocher, Vasilyeva, Waterfall, Vevea, & Hedges, 2007; Pan, Rowe, Singer, & 
Snow, 2005). This is particularly important in infancy during crucial stages for mother-child 
bonding, and throughout early childhood as the child engages in vocabulary development, toilet 
training, and initial social interactions with peers. Poverty and social isolation, especially in 
socially disorganized and highly economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods, are strongly 
associated with parental stress that further inhibits the ability to respond appropriately to extreme 
temperament children (Hay, Pawlby, Angold, Harold, & Sharp, 2003). 

 
When transitioning through school grades, children with poor regulation of negative 

emotions (e.g., anger and frustration) are at a heightened risk of peer rejection (Rubin, 
Bukowski, & Parker, 1998). In particular, high reactive children and youth are more likely to 
respond to routine school activities involving teachers and peers with aggressive outbursts, in 



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part because their intense emotional arousal increases their difficulty in accurately interpreting 
social cues (i.e., non-hostile) and responding prosocially (Dodge & Pettit, 2003; Dodge, 
Lochman, Harnish, Bates, & Pettit, 1997; Waldman, 1996). 

 
In the later childhood stage, (10 to 12 years old), high reactivity is associated with 

substance abuse, in part because of boredom and low self-control (Wills, Sandy, & Shinar, 1999; 
Wills, Sandy, & Yaeger, 2002). In contrast, low reactivity children are more likely to engage in 
externalizing behaviours largely because they lack the normative heightened sense of fear of 
being punished (Eisenberg et al., 2001; Frick et al., 1999; Frick et al., 2003; Schwartz, Snidman, 
& Kagan, 1996; Tremblay, Pihl, Vitaro, & Dobkin, 1994). For these youth, the motivation for 
high-risk antisocial behaviours and potentially self-destructive behaviours (e.g., excessive hard 
drug use and driving cars at reckless speeds) is the intense physiological desire to engage in 
novel and exciting experiences (Raine, 2002). Low reactive children begin engaging in antisocial 
behaviours early and disregard age norms, again, largely because they lack fear associated with 
potential punishment and seek intense stimulation. A small proportion of youth on this pathway 
experience aggression in the form of bullying, followed later by serious violence in adolescence 
(Kagan & Snidman, 2004). 

 
 Intervention 
 Despite the evidence that temperament is genetically determined, its relationship to 
antisocial behaviour is not deterministic. Children with extreme temperaments can develop skills 
to cope with adverse situations either on their own, or as a result of parental intervention (Rubin, 
Burgess, & Hastings, 2002; Kagan & Snidman, 2004). Extreme temperaments are identifiable at 
multiple life stages, beginning as early as four months of age with the use of a 45-minute 
assessment of responses to stimuli conducted by a trained professional (Kagan & Snidman, 
2004). In cases where extreme temperament is undetected at the earliest developmental stage, 
there are several types of instruments available at the later stages including, for example, 
cognitive assessments for 4 year olds, teacher and parent questionnaires for 7 year olds, and 
biological assessments for 11 year olds (Kagan & Snidman, 2004). Thus, there are multiple 
points of detection, and a range of intervention points which are associated with programs. 
Intervention programs for extreme high reactive children emphasize the minimization of anxiety 
by avoiding stress-inducing expectations and overly critical reactions to failure by authority 
figures, particularly parents and teachers. Interventions for extreme low reactive children focus 
instead on structured discipline, and high-energy activities focused on rewards rather than 
punishment to engage the children (Wills & Dishion, 2004; Kagan & Snidman, 2004). 
 
4: Childhood Maltreatment Pathway 
  

This pathway focuses on severe or repeated child maltreatment during the early years of 
life. While there is no common definition or consensus about what constitutes the broad range of 
acts that define serious maltreatment, typically this concept refers to a one or more incidents of 
neglect, emotional abuse, physical or sexual abuse. Severe maltreatment increases the likelihood 
of immediate and/or long-term substantial damage to the physical and mental health of the child. 
One of the difficulties in explicating the severe maltreatment pathway is that cumulative acts of 
non-severe maltreatment such as hostile and ineffective parenting also have immediate and long-



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term effects on aggression and general antisocial behaviour (Benzies et al., 2009; Farrington, 
1996). 

  
Both recurrent abuse of a less serious nature (Ryan & Testa, 2005) and experiencing 

abuse by multiple perpetrators (Hamilton, Falshaw, & Browne, 2002) are associated with 
antisocial behaviour. In other words, repeated less serious incidents of maltreatment can result in 
cumulative substantive damage, not unlike single incidents of major maltreatment. The key 
concern is whether maltreatment contributes to changes in the child’s neuro-anatomical 
structures or brain chemistry that impact the ability of the brain to moderate reactivity associated 
with impulsivity and aggression (Perry, 1997). Children who experience repeated and 
unpredictable violence are more likely to be hyper-vigilant to threats, thereby misperceiving 
them and reacting impulsively and aggressively (Perry, 1997). 

 
 Prevalence 

A recent provincial survey in British Columbia found that 64% of incarcerated youth had 
been physically abused, most commonly by a parent or step-parent; 11% had experienced sexual 
abuse, and 10% had experienced both physical and sexual abuse (Murphy, Chittenden, & 
McCreary Centre Society, 2005). Similar findings were observed in a sample of incarcerated 
youth in England, which found that nearly 55% of youth had experienced abuse on multiple 
occasions, both by the same perpetrator on multiple occasions and by different perpetrators 
(Hamilton et al., 2002). 

   
Proposed Pathway to Serious Antisocial Behaviour for Offenders Exposed to Child Maltreatment 2

  
 

Extreme 
maltreatment 

 Poor school 
performance 

 Single-
parenthood 

 Inappropriate 
bonding 

 Multiple CIC 
placements 

         

 
  

 CJS invovlement  
Early 

substance 
abuse 

 Poor school performance 

 

 Children exposed to repeated maltreatment, particularly in combination with neglect, are 
at an increased risk of early poor school performance. This relationship is explained by a 
heightened state of defensive alertness that distracts from the ability to focus on routine lessons 
needed for positive school performance. Early school success is strongly correlated with longer-
term academic performance including intermediate or secondary school graduation which, in 
turn, is associated with decreased likelihood of antisocial behaviour and serious violence 
(Stewart, Livingston, & Dennison, 2008; Jonson-Reid, Drake, Kim, Porterfield, & Han, 2004; 
Perry, 1997). 

  
Regarding trauma related to maltreatment, there is a strong relationship between single-

parent homes and harsh parenting practices (Benzies et al., 2009), and adolescents raised in 

                                                           
2 Risk factors in dotted lines have likely always been present, but take on new meaning for as others accumulate. 



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single-parent households have been found to be significantly more likely to engage in antisocial 
behaviours (Demuth & Brown, 2004; Fergusson, Boden, & Horwood, 2007). Thus, there is an 
increased likelihood of stacked risk factors for these youth in the case of single-parent families. 
However, in both single- and two-parent households, as the emotional and behavioural problems 
associated with the trauma intensify, the ability of these children to bond with their caregivers 
diminishes (Perry, 1997). This creates a downward spiral, whereby the combination of continued 
abuse and insecure attachment increases the likelihood of conduct problems (Vando, Rhule-
Louie, McMahon, & Spieker, 2008). 

  
As chronic maltreatment continues, the likelihood of entry into the care of child 

protective services increases. Given the likelihood of severely maltreated children to display 
conduct problems, they are also likely to experience a high number of placement breakdowns, 
which may further reduce the likelihood of school success if placements require school transfers 
(Newton et al., 2000). These youth tend to engage in substance abuse at a young age in an 
attempt to self-medicate and cope with their trauma. Substance abuse, particularly of hard drugs, 
has been discussed as a form of self-medication among incarcerated youth, who in many cases 
had experienced trauma (Corrado & Cohen, 2002). 

 
 As these youth are shifted among placements in child protection services, unequipped to 
effectively navigate through social settings as a result of failed socialization techniques by 
neglectful and abusive parents, they have few anchors to help them avoid antisocial behaviours. 
Their propensity to engage in aggressive behaviours is increased by their tendency to view the 
actions of others as threatening, thereby eliciting a hostile response. They are unlikely to seek 
attachments to school, as they generally fail to become attached to school at any point due to 
their early classroom difficulties. As such, these youth become highly likely to engage in serious 
antisocial behaviour. 
 
 Intervention 

Initial intervention strategies focus on service agents with most routine access to families, 
encouraging their ability to integrate efforts to identify families at high risk for child abuse. 
Public health nurses who visit pregnant mothers, family physicians, social workers, daycare 
workers, and police are critical sources for identifying cases of maltreatment of infants and 
toddlers. Later in childhood, preschool and kindergarten teachers have routine contact with their 
students that allow them to identify abuse and thus also take on a key role in protecting children. 
Early identification of abuse may be improved with knowledge of particular types of high-risk 
families, such as those headed by young single parents who are also unemployed or with very 
limited income, have little familial or friendship support, engage in routine substance abuse, 
and/or have serious and long-term mental health problems. Unstable intimate partner 
relationships further increase the childhood risk especially if histories of criminality and violence 
are also evident among one or both of the parents (Benzies et al., 2009). Single parenthood is 
pervasive in Canada since one-fifth of children in Canada in 2004 resided in single-parent homes 
(Vanier Institute of the Family, 2004). 

 
Another intervention point is later childhood, just prior to adolescence. This stage is 

important because children who experience chronic victimization continuing from childhood to 



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adolescence are more likely to engage in antisocial behaviours than those whose victimization 
was limited to early childhood or the first year of grade school (Verrecchia, Fetzer, Lemmon, & 
Austin, 2010). Parent training programs that focus on improving the ability of parents to identify 
problematic behaviours in their children and to modify these behaviours accordingly are 
particularly effective (Kazdin, 1997; Howell & Hawkins, 1998). Evaluations of these programs 
have reported reductions in certain risk factors associated with poor family management 
techniques (Greenwood, 2004). However, when either the maltreatment is extreme or when 
maltreatment persists despite attempts to improve parenting strategies, child protection services 
are typically mandated by law to remove the child from the family. While there is considerable 
controversy over removing a child from parental care quickly, in extreme incidents of severe 
maltreatment resulting in major trauma including brain damage, the immediate experience of 
secure and intensely loving caregivers can mitigate and even reverse brain damage, especially for 
infants and very young children (Perry, 1997). 

  
Another important treatment concern is assessing why some children in care experience 

multiple placement shifts. The latter are strongly associated with early and even chronic 
involvement in youth and adult criminal justice systems along with more serious offending and 
longer sentences. One explanation is that there is a category of maltreated children who suffer 
post-traumatic disorders and/or present with undiagnosed co-morbid personality disorders, some 
of which are discussed in the above pathways. Foster care providers who are unaware of these 
disorders or lack the resources to parent these types of children, not uncommonly return them to 
child services for another placement. In effect, by failing to identify the extent of maltreatment 
related trauma or childhood and adolescent disorders, the negative impact of the original trauma 
is compounded because of the continuing experience of “familial” rejection and related 
emotional/physical disruptions resulting from multiple placements (Doyle, 2007; Jonson-Reid & 
Barth, 2000; Newton et al., 2000). An accompanying treatment concern is the need to provide 
continuing housing, income, and employment assistance along with mental health services for 
the period of transition from late adolescence to early adulthood (Courtney & Heuring, 2005). 

 
5: Adolescent Onset 
 
 There is a consensus that serious antisocial behaviour, particularly criminal behaviour, 
most commonly begins during adolescence (Moffitt, 1993; Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990). The 
pre-eminent theoretical model of why this occurs is Moffitt’s typology consisting of Life-Course 
Persistent Offender and Adolescence-Limited Offender. This adolescent onset pathway is 
premised upon Moffitt’s (1993) identification of an adolescent-onset type of offender: 
individuals who begin engaging in antisocial behaviours during early adolescence, but whose 
earlier life experiences were not characterized by exposure to risk factors for serious antisocial 
behaviour. Most adolescent onset young offenders desist by late adolescence or early adulthood 
because of age appropriate opportunities for mature relationships and independence from parents 
and other authority figures (Moffitt, 1993). However, more recently Moffitt, Caspi, Harrington, 
and Milne (2002) acknowledged a small proportion of adolescent onset offenders who continue 
offending into adulthood. 
  



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 Prevalence 
 Adolescent onset offending is common among offender populations, with estimates as 
high as 95% of the antisocial population (Moffitt, 1993). The typical trajectory for adolescent 
onset offenders who persist into adulthood (albeit at a reduced rate) is most frequently 
characterized by desistance around 26 years of age (Moffitt et al., 2002). Yet a small proportion 
do not desist during early or middle adulthood, and this is explained in relation to experienced 
“snares” or certain key risk factors, including substance addictions, incarceration, involvement in 
adult criminal gangs, and early and overwhelming parenthood responsibilities that hinder the 
ability of individuals to effectively desist in adolescence or early adulthood (Moffitt, 1993; Gatti 
et al., 2005; Thornberry et al., 2003). In other words, there are risk factors that increase the 
likelihood of persistence among those who would otherwise be likely to desist prior to adulthood 
(Lacourse et al., 2003; Stouthamer-Loeber et al., 2008). 
  
Proposed Pathway to Serious Antisocial Behaviour for Offenders with Adolescent Onset3

 
 

Low income, 
single-parent, 
high conflict 

family 

 
Socially 

disorganized 
neighbourhood 

 Family criminality  
Poor school 
performance  

Early 
substance 

abuse 

         

  Adult Gangs  CJS invovlement 
 Antisocial 

behaviour 
 Multiple CIC 

placements 

 

 
 
The adolescent onset offender is not typically exposed to family and education risk 

factors as these youth are more likely to have experienced prosocial parenting, positive early 
school performance, and prosocial peer relationships. However, there are a significant number of 
adolescents who express disagreement with their parents. For example, in Rutter, Graham, 
Chadwick, and Yule’s (1976) early seminal Isle of Wight cohort study, up to one-third of 14 year 
olds indicated some disagreement with their parents. Family stability, successful routine 
involvement in school and leisure activities such as sports, animal care, and arts, and 
neighbourhood cohesion, all limit expressions of typical adolescent rebellion. Nonetheless, 
experiencing change (such as that brought on by divorce, changing custody arrangements, health 
issues, accidents, death, school transfers, bullying, change of residences and/or cities) may 
sufficiently disrupt daily life, resulting in an increased likelihood of adolescent onset serious 
antisocial behaviour. 

  
Often, sudden changes in school performance, such as incomplete assignments and 

lowered grades, are linked to skipping classes in an attempt to reject authority and establish 
autonomy. School failure is linked to higher drop-out rates, cumulative skill deficits, reduced 
employment opportunities, and long-term unemployment (Moffitt, 1993; Corrado, Cohen, & 
                                                           
3 Risk factors in dotted lines have likely always been present, but take on new meaning for as others accumulate. 



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McCormick, 2008; Cohen, Corrado, & McCormick, 2008). The more excessive expressions of 
rebellion against authority involve association with antisocial peers, whose lifestyles mimic adult 
roles without the concomitant responsibilities and resources. To obtain the latter, routine 
property crime and drug trafficking are resorted to, and, not uncommonly, instigated and 
organized by life-course persistent young offenders. The lifestyle of the latter also includes 
illegal substance use, early onset and non-normative sexual activities, along with a range of high 
risk and violent behaviours. These activities are essential to the explanation of adolescent limited 
offenders (Moffitt, 1993). In extreme situations, these youth are either dismissed from their 
homes or run away. In early adolescence, and even beginning in late childhood, this reaction 
increases the likelihood that child/youth care agencies will become involved to place the child in 
the care of child protective services. However, it is likely that these youth would also run away 
from care placements and thus also experience multiple placements and shifts across group 
homes. More disconcerting, some of these youth will become “street kids” where the risk for 
victimization and criminal offending increase dramatically (Baron & Hartnagel, 1998; Hagan & 
McCarthy, 1997). 

  
 A minority of offenders become life-course persistent, such as those who experience the 

presence of neighbourhood risk factors (e.g., concentrated social or economic disadvantage and 
ethnic or racial homogeneity), family risk factors (e.g., family criminality and single 
parenthood), and poor school performance, rendering them more likely to be recruited into 
informal and formal gangs. The appeal of these gangs stems first from a desire to obtain 
protection through membership, and membership is sustained by interest in the associated 
lifestyle or by ongoing threats to survival that appear to be mitigated by gang involvement 
(Howell & Egley, 2005; Thornberry et al., 2003). This gang involvement is strongly correlated 
with persistent serious and violent offending, custodial sentences, and criminal trajectories into 
adulthood (Thornberry et al., 2003; Gatti et al., 2005). 

 
  
 Intervention Strategy 
 Programs based on parenting techniques for behavioural issues that commonly arise on a 
daily basis for this adolescent onset age group have empirical support (Gardner, Lane, & 
Hutchings, 2004). Specifically, improved parental recognition of risk factors and related parent 
management skills for devising graduated levels of responsibility and increases in child 
autonomy are associated with a reduction in negative behaviours at home, disruptive behaviours 
in the classroom, peer aggression, and improved school readiness and academic engagement. 
Teaching parents to avoid rigid and authoritarian language or behaviours, and establishing 
normative standards of conduct facilitates effective communication with adolescents. In effect, 
parental openness to discussion and negotiations with an adolescent can reduce their perceived 
sense of a lack of autonomy and minimize the desire to prematurely engage in adult behaviours. 
A key objective is to teach parents how to minimize the likelihood of a continuous cycle of 
parent-child anger, parental recrimination, and the escalation of language by both parties with the 
resultant rebellious behaviour displayed by the adolescent (Webster-Stratton & Taylor, 2001; 
Gardner et al., 2004; Sanders, Turner, & Markie-Dadds, 2001). 
  



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 Programs focused on the adolescent pathway are often necessary because it is the 
presence of actual programs that de-escalates the above cycle despite all the best parental 
intentions. Again, schools and other community-based programs can provide opportunities to 
experience autonomy and more adult-like prosocial excitement. Beyond sports programs that are 
usually highly exclusive and limited to a handful of the best athletes, sports clubs led by older 
students and supervised by adult mentors can be an important source for positive self-image and 
autonomy. Programs to develop trade skills, along with apprenticeships, can also be targeted at 
middle and late adolescents to provide another school/community-based opportunity. 
Government sponsored independent living experiences can also be targeted at the small number 
of older adolescents who have fundamental difficulties remaining at home. 
 

Conclusion 
 

It is not possible in the limited space of this article to explicate the complete series of 
potential risk factors, intervention points, and related programs appropriate for each pathway. 
The essential theme of this article is that recent developmental theories, empirical research, and 
related risk measurement instruments in Canada and elsewhere, have provided vitally important 
information concerning intervention strategies to reduce child and adolescent antisocial 
behaviours that progress into adult criminal trajectories. Indeed, the literature is now sufficiently 
developed and specified within a developmental framework to provide a degree of specificity as 
to what prevention strategies at which developmental points will best target appropriate risk in 
the context of evidence-based strategies (Leschied, Chiodo, Nowicki, & Rodger, 2008). 

  
Another theme is that there are multiple developmental pathways that are hypothesized to 

require different intervention points, and therefore, different programs are appropriate according 
to the initial risk factor, despite the numerous risk factors shared across the developmental 
stages. A key assumption is that valid diagnostic instruments exist to identify risk factors for 
each pathway, and that there are valid treatment interventions as well. This optimistic 
perspective, arguably, is embedded in the Canadian research presented in all the other articles in 
this special edition. At a minimum, there is an emerging consensus among developmental 
theorists and researchers that there is considerable causal heterogeneity among serious and 
violent young offenders. This diversity is specifically evident in the 12-year SSHRC-funded 
study of over 1,000 incarcerated young offenders in British Columbia that the authors have been 
involved in. Finally, these pathways are also designed to stimulate a debate about additional risk 
factors, the sequencing of risk factors, appropriate treatment strategies, and the identification of 
additional pathways.  



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	RISK PROFILES, TRAJECTORIES, AND INTERVENTION POINTS FOR SERIOUS AND CHRONIC YOUNG OFFENDERS
	Abstract: One of the lesser understood research issues about antisocial onset and  persistence is whether there are different patterns of risk factors within the broader  identified pathways that require distinctive treatment strategies. This article...
	Key Words: young offender, pathway models, intervention, serious offending, chronic  offending, violent offending
	Key Variables in the Models
	School Performance
	Residential Mobility
	Antisocial Peers
	Substance Abuse
	Aggressive Behaviours

	Proposed Pathway Models
	1: Prenatal Risk Factors
	Evidence of Prenatal Risk Factor Exposure among Serious and Violent Offenders
	Proposed Pathway to Serious Antisocial Behaviour for Offenders Exposed to Prenatal Risk Factors
	Intervention

	2: Childhood Personality Disorders
	Evidence of Personality Disorders among Serious and Violent Offenders
	Proposed Pathway to Serious Antisocial Behaviour for Offenders with Childhood Personality Disorders0F
	Intervention

	3: Extreme Child Temperament
	Prevalence
	Proposed Pathway to Serious Antisocial Behaviour for Offenders with Extreme Child Temperament
	Intervention

	4: Childhood Maltreatment Pathway
	Prevalence
	Proposed Pathway to Serious Antisocial Behaviour for Offenders Exposed to Child Maltreatment1F
	Intervention

	5: Adolescent Onset
	Prevalence
	Proposed Pathway to Serious Antisocial Behaviour for Offenders with Adolescent Onset2F
	Intervention Strategy

	Conclusion
	References
	Lösel, F. (2001). Evaluating the effectiveness of correctional programs: Bridging the gap  between research and practice. In G. Bernfeld, D. Farrington, & A. Leschied (Eds.),  Offender rehabilitation in practice: Implementing and evaluating effective ...