List the four childhood risk factors, along with descriptors identified as contributing to persistent delinquency. Indicate which of these factors you would identify as the most important and provide a rationale for your choice

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

All descriptors indicated in the text are listed here; instructors may want students to identify all descriptors or a sampling of descriptors.

• Individual Factors
o Early antisocial behaviors
o Emotional factors such as high behavioral activation and low behavioral inhibition
o Poor cognitive development
o Low intelligence
o Hyperactivity
• School and Community Factors
o Failure to bond to school
o Poor academic performance
o Low academic aspirations
o Living in a poor family
o Neighborhood disadvantage
o Disorganized neighborhoods
o Concentration of delinquent peer groups
o Access to weapons
• Family Factors
o Parenting
o Maltreatment
o Family violence
o Divorce
o Parental psychopathology
o Familial antisocial behaviors
o Teenage parenthood
o Family structure
o Large family size
• Peer Factors
o Association with deviant peers
o Peer rejection
• Student answers will vary