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Since the industrial revolution, there has been an ongoing debate within society and its institutions about the effectiveness of punishment, treatment, and rehabilitation as primary solutions to this social problem. Since the early 1970s science has made significant methodological and theoretical progress in identifying specific antecedents and mediators of delinquency and crime. This progress includes developmental sequencing of these antecedents that, in turn, is leading to the development of precise interventions.
Many of these early risk factors directly or indirectly involve parent–child interactions.
Contextual influences that historically have been associated with delinquency (e.g., poverty, parent psychopathology) have been shown to be most influential because of their disruptive effects on parenting. Later, peers become important in the further development and maintenance of delinquent behavior. Future research will identify malleable variables and validated intervention technologies at all levels of delinquency and crime prevention.
Future research will develop predictive and prevention models that will reliably identify the small percentage of youths who account for the most delinquency and crime, and the youths most likely to transfer delinquency and crime across generations. In addition, future theoretical and methodological advances will include a focus on the interaction between biological / genetic variables and social environments (both naturally occurring and therapeutically designed) and the results of this interaction on antisocial developmental trajectories and rates of delinquency and crime. (1)
Crime and Delinquency, Prevention of K.J. Moore, in
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences
