Delinquency

The term delinquency or delinquent behavior often refers to acts that are illegal, to differentiate delinquency, as a legal phenomenon, from antisocial behavior, which harms others or society but is not necessarily unlawful. In the present entry, the term delinquent behavior refers to both officially registered and unregistered delinquent behavior, as the behavior is the same and can be explained by the same factors. This entry focuses on delinquency from a life-course perspective. The risk and protective factors for development and persistence of delinquent behavior are explained, followed by suggestions for prevention programs and intervention to prevent and/or decrease delinquency.

Delinquency is a heavy burden for society and costs societies a lot of money. These costs concern the legal system, costs made for support and treatment of victims, costs of crime prevention agencies, costs of imprisonment or other safety measures such as alarm systems and fencing, physical health costs, and the costs of mending any damage caused by delinquent activities. Apart from those concrete costs, delinquent behavior has a large impact on the general feelings of safety and well-being of individuals in society.

Given the costs of delinquent behavior for society, many prevention efforts have been carried out with mixed success rates. To develop effective prevention and intervention programs, it is important to examine delinquent behavior from a developmental perspective. A large body of longitudinal research has shown that the developmental trajectory leading toward delinquent behavior often starts with physical aggression and noncompliance in infancy and the preschool years. When such behavior is not addressed properly, it tends to continue. In early and middle childhood, increasingly oppositional children are likely to experience social rejection by peers and to receive more negative reactions from teachers, which might reduce the opportunities to learn appropriate social skills and effective problem-solving. By early adolescence, these children tend to become more susceptible to deviant peer group influences, setting the stage for further escalation of problems, and involvement in delinquent behavior in later adolescence and adulthood.