title: A comparison of offending trajectories in violent youth according to violence type.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Widespread public concern about youth violence persists, particularly the so-called acts of appetitive violence characterised by positive affect and exemplified in modern trends such as 'happy slapping'. Empirical research into this phenomenon is scant.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to determine whether perpetration of appetitive violence signals a specific offending trajectory.
  
  
  METHODS
  We reviewed reports and related material from 105 violent young offenders referred to court mental health services in the state of Victoria, Australia. Index violent offences were categorised as appetitive or not. Official police records were used to determine rearrest during the 12 months following mental health assessment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The nine young people whose offence was classified as appetitive were male and did not reoffend, generally or violently, at different rates than the other youths.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The offending trajectories of young people with appetitively violent index offences were indistinguishable from other violent youths. There is thus insufficient information here to recommend distinctive intervention for this subgroup, but their high reoffending rate (7/9) suggests that they are worthy of more research attention. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ching
authors.affiliation: Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.|Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Daffern
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.|Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.|Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia.
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thomas
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D001315:Australia; D057237:Criminals / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016495:Police; D014754:Violence / Q000145:classification* / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data