This chapter suggests that delinquency conceals two distinct categories of individuals, each with a unique natural history and etiology: A small group engages in antisocial behavior of one sort or another at every life stage, whereas a larger group is antisocial only during adolescence. According to the theory of life-course-persistent antisocial behavior, children's neuropsychological problems interact cumulatively with their criminogenic environments across development, culminating m a pathological personality. According to the theory of adolescence-limited antisocial behavior, a contemporary maturity gap encourages teens to mimic antisocial behavior in ways that are normative and adjustive. There are marked individual differences in the stability of antisocial behavior. The chapter reviews the mysterious relationship between age and antisocial behavior. Some youths who refrain from antisocial behavior may, for some reason, not sense the maturity gap and therefore lack the hypothesized motivation for experimenting with crime.

/pdf/adolescence-limited-and-life-course-persistent-antisocial-52vil00qlw.pdf

Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy.

This article describes a revised Conflict Tactics Scales (the CTS2) to measure psychological and physical attacks on a partner in a marital, cohabiting, or dating relationship; and also use of negotiation. The CTS2 has (a) additional items to enhance content validity and reliability; (b) revised wording to increase clarity and specificity; (c) better differentiation between minor and severe levels of each scale; (d) new scales to measure sexual coercion and physical injury; and (e) a new format to simplify administration and reduce response sets. Reliability ranges from .79 to .95. There is preliminary evidence of construct validity.

The Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2): Development and Preliminary Psychometric Data

What good is self-control? We incorporated a new measure of individual differences in self-control into two large investigations of a broad spectrum of behaviors. The new scale showed good internal consistency and retest reliability. Higher scores on self-control correlated with a higher grade point average, better adjustment (fewer reports of psychopathology, higher self-esteem), less binge eating and alcohol abuse, better relationships and interpersonal skills, secure attachment, and more optimal emotional responses. Tests for curvilinearity failed to indicate any drawbacks of so-called overcontrol, and the positive effects remained after controlling for social desirability. Low self-control is thus a significant risk factor for a broad range of personal and interpersonal problems.

/pdf/high-self-control-predicts-good-adjustment-less-pathology-19qckrshli.pdf

High self-control predicts good adjustment, less pathology, better grades, and interpersonal success.

Policy-makers are considering large-scale programs aimed at self-control to improve citizens’ health and wealth and reduce crime. Experimental and economic studies suggest such programs could reap benefits. Yet, is self-control important for the health, wealth, and public safety of the population? Following a cohort of 1,000 children from birth to the age of 32 y, we show that childhood self-control predicts physical health, substance dependence, personal finances, and criminal offending outcomes, following a gradient of self-control. Effects of children's self-control could be disentangled from their intelligence and social class as well as from mistakes they made as adolescents. In another cohort of 500 sibling-pairs, the sibling with lower self-control had poorer outcomes, despite shared family background. Interventions addressing self-control might reduce a panoply of societal costs, save taxpayers money, and promote prosperity.

/pdf/a-gradient-of-childhood-self-control-predicts-health-wealth-5fdg5ylocq.pdf

A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety

e w id r as e, se er t st al h r Overweight or obesity in adolescents has reache epidemic proportions in the USA and other industr alized countries. These conditions, although ofte lumped together in research and in commentarie reflect adolescents’ being toward the heavier point a continuum that would range from underweight morbidly obese. The terms may be used interchang ably, but there is no doubt that, in the US a considerable percentage of adolescents suffer fro too much body fat. The prevalence of obesity (bod mass index [BMI] >95th percentile) among adole cents aged 12–19 years is now one in six (17.6%); an one in three (34.9%) US adolescents are overweight obese (BMI>85th percentile) (Story et al. 2009). Oth industrialized countries, such as Canada, Japa Germany, and China also are beginning to experien increasing problems related to obesity (Cornette 2008 Being on the overweight side of the weight continuu means being afflicted with a serious, chronic disea that can cause substantial harm to adolescents’ curre and future health. Although terms may be used loosely, individua only are formally deemed obese by physicians. The are some rules of thumb and formulas that often a used, especially in social science studies, but physician diagnose whether adolescents are obese. Discussion measurements tends to focus on that diagnos A diagnosis of obesity typically involves using a bod mass index (BMI). BMI is a measure of weight propo tionate to height, which is deemed a useful measure the amount of body fat. Although there are other mo precise ways to measure excess fat, experts now recom mend using BMI because it is easily obtained, strong

Obesity and Overweight

Preface Part I. Crime: 1. Classical theory and the idea of crime 2. The nature of crime Part II. Criminality: 3. Biological positivism 4. Psychological, economic, and sociological positivism 5. The nature of criminality: low self-control Part II. Applications of the Theory: 6. Criminal events and individual propensities: age, gender, and race 7. The social consequences of low self-control 8. Culture and crime 9. White-collar crime 10. Organization and crime Part IV. Research and Policy: 11. Research design and measurement 12. Implications for public policy Index.

A general theory of crime.

One of the few facts agreed on in criminology is the age distribution of crime. This fact has been used to criticize social theories of crime causation, to provide the foundation for other theories, to justify recent emphases on career criminals, and to support claims of superiority for longitudinal designs in criminological research. In the present paper, we argue that the age distribution of crime is sufficiently invariant over a broad range of social conditions that these uses of the age distribution are not justified by available evidence.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2779005.pdf

Michael R. Gottfredson

Papers

A general theory of crime.

Age and the Explanation of Crime

Victims of Personal Crime: An Empirical Foundation for a Theory of Personal Victimization

Victims of personal crime : an empirical foundation for a theory of personal victimization

Of criminal victimization