title: Implications of criminal career research for the prevention of offending.
abstract: In the Cambridge Study of Delinquent Development, 411 London males have been followed up from age 8 to age 32. Offending was only one element of a general syndrome of antisocial behaviour, which showed significant continuity from childhood to adulthood. The most important childhood (age 8-11) predictors of offending up to age 32 were: socio-economic deprivation, poor parenting, family deviance, school problems, hyperactivity-impulsivity-attention deficit, and antisocial child behaviour. A theory was proposed to explain these results, including criminal motivation, internalized beliefs about offending, and rational decision-making. It was concluded that the most hopeful methods of preventing offending were behavioural parent training and pre-school intellectual enrichment programmes.
authors.affiliation: Cambridge University, Institute of Criminology, England.
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Farrington
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000150:complications; D002657:Child Development; D002668:Child Rearing / Q000523:psychology; D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D008131:London; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D011203:Poverty; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors