Antisocial behavior before the age–crime curve: Can developmental criminology continue to ignore developmental origins?

Abstract

This chapter reviews the present state of knowledge on the development of antisocial behavior from early childhood to adulthood. An increasing number of longitudinal studies initiated at birth or during the first few years of life are showing that antisocial behaviors that are considered delinquent and criminal during adolescence and adulthood, such as physical aggression, stealing, and destruction of property are more frequent in early childhood than at any other time during the life-span. Because chronic antisocial behavior generally starts in early childhood, preventive interventions during this period are much more likely to be effective and substantially decrease the costs of criminal behavior during adolescence and early adulthood. Unfortunately, most criminological studies on development and prevention target the adolescent and adulthood periods. Early childhood studies are needed to identify early bio-psycho-social mechanisms that put individuals on a chronic trajectory of antisocial behavior from early childhood to adulthood. These studies can also help identify the preventive interventions that are most effective in preventing a life-course of crime and misery. Developmental criminology needs to take a bio-psychosocial intergenerational and life-span perspective as well as focus more systematically on females as the key target for intergenerational prevention of chronic antisocial behavior.