What Factors Increase or Decrease Boys’ Risk of Juvenile Delinquency?

Individual risk factors for juvenile delinquency include:

• Early aggressive behavior
• Restlessness and concentration problems
• Substance abuse
• Association with antisocial peers
• Participation in unstructured leisure activities

 
Ways families, schools, and communities can aggravate the risk of juvenile delinquency:

• Childhood maltreatment
• Ineffective or dysfunctional parenting
• Parental criminality
• Truancy and dropping out of school
• Exposure to community violence
• Poverty

Factors that help protect young people from the risk of juvenile delinquency include:

• Attachments to family or family support
• Parental monitoring
• Strong feelings of accountability or perceived risk of punishment for misbehavior
• Positive social and community activities
• High academic achievement or school connectedness
• Mentoring relationships and positive role models
• Low neighborhood crime rate