Juvenile Serious Habitual Offender and Family Composition (From Serious Habitual Offender/Drug Involved Program (SHO/DI), Volume 1: Informational Commentaries, Phase I, P 3.1-3.8, 1986, Robert O Heck et al -- See NCJ-108314)

• NCJ Number: 108317
• Author(s): R O Heck; W Pindur; D K Wells
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 8 pages
• Corporate Author: US Dept of Justice
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Literature Review
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: For microfiche, see NCJ-108314.

Annotation

Research has shown a clear and direct effect of family factors on serious juvenile delinquency.

Abstract

Several studies have found that serious and violent juvenile offenders are more likely to come from broken homes and more often come from large than small families. Other studies have shown correlations between parental violence and criminality and sibling criminality and serious delinquency. Studies also have found that disturbed family relationships and family violence, including child abuse, are more common among serious delinquents. Other factors implicated in delinquency include an early history of violence; a combination of cruelty to animals, enuresis, and juvenile arson; and a combination of perinatal difficulties, child abuse, and head and face trauma. Although a distinct causal relationship between family factors and serious delinquency cannot be established, findings clearly support an effect of family composition. 21 endnotes.