Risk Factors
The two largest predictors of juvenile delinquency are
- parenting style, with the two styles most likely to predict delinquency being
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- "permissive" parenting, characterized by a lack of consequence-based discipline and encompassing two subtypes known as
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- "neglectful" parenting, characterized by a lack of monitoring and thus of knowledge of the child's activities, and
- "indulgent" parenting, characterized by affirmative enablement of misbehavior)
- "authoritarian" parenting, characterized by harsh discipline and refusal to justify discipline on any basis other than "because I said so";
- peer group association, particularly with antisocial peer groups, as is more likely when adolescents are left unsupervised.
Other factors that may lead a teenager into juvenile delinquency include, poor or low socio-economic status, poor school readiness/performance and/or failure, peer rejection, hyperactivity, or attention deficit disorder (ADHD). There may also be biological factors, such as high levels of serotonin, giving them a difficult temper and poor self-regulation, and a lower resting heart rate, which may lead to fearlessness. Most of these tend to be influenced by a mix of both genetic and environmental factors.
Read more about this topic: Juvenile Delinquency
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