Childhood bullies and victims and their risk of criminality in late adolescence: the Finnish From a Boy to a Man study.
OBJECTIVE
To study correlations of childhood bullying and victimization with juvenile criminality.


METHODS
Longitudinal birth cohort study from age 8 years to ages 16 to 20 years.


METHODS
Population-based study from Finland.


METHODS
The sample comprised 2551 boys (86.6% of the original birth cohort) with complete information about bullying and victimization from parents, teachers, and children at age 8 years.


METHODS
Information about criminal offenses from the National Police Register at ages 16 to 20 years.


RESULTS
Frequent bullies and those who frequently both bullied and were bullied (8.8% of the sample) were responsible for 33.0% of all juvenile crimes during the 4-year study period. Frequent bully-only status predicted both occasional and repeated offending, whereas bully-victim status predicted repeated offending. Bullying predicted most types of crime (violence, property, drunk driving, and traffic offenses) when controlled with parental education level. However, frequent bullies or victims without a high level of psychiatric symptoms were not at an elevated risk for later criminality.


CONCLUSIONS
Boys who frequently bully are at risk for later criminality when this condition is accompanied by a high level of psychiatric symptoms. Frequent bullies should be actively screened for psychiatric problems.
Sourander
Andre
A
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. andre.sourander@utu.fi
Jensen
Peter
P
Rönning
John A
JA
Elonheimo
Henrik
H
Niemelä
Solja
S
Helenius
Hans
H
Kumpulainen
Kirsti
K
Piha
Jorma
J
Tamminen
Tuula
T
Moilanen
Irma
I
Almqvist
Fredrik
F
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000328:Adult; D000378:Agonistic Behavior; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000150:complications; D015331:Cohort Studies; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents