Very Young Offenders

Several studies have shown that childhood onset offenders are at high risk to become serious and chronic offenders. In addition, early onset offenders are at heightened risk to develop mental health, social, as well as occupational problems during their entire lives. On the other hand, by no means will all childhood onset offenders persist in offending or develop problems in life. Insight into early onset offenders'' characteristics is needed, not only to enable accurate identification of those who are truly at risk, but also to provide directions for intervention. So far, however, most knowledge about childhood onset offending is based on general population studies that compare early onset offenders to other groups and do not focus on differences within the early onset offender group. Therefore, the aim of this book is three-fold: first, to describe police recorded delinquency and self-reported antisocial behavior, and recidivism among childhood first-time offenders. Second, to study correlates of offending severity among childhood onset offenders. Finally, to study predictors of recidivism and desistance in childhood onset offending.