Childhood origins of antisocial behavior

Abstract The major early risk factors for antisocial behavior include impulsiveness, low intelligence and low school achievement, poor parental supervision, child physical abuse, punitive or erratic parental dis‐cipline, cold parental attitude, parental conflict, disrupted families, antisocial parents, large family size, low family income, antisocial peers, high delinquency‐rate schools, and high crime neighborhoods. The causal mechanisms linking these risk factors with antisocial outcomes are less well established, and the ‘ICAP’ theory is proposed to explain these. The major implications for intervention are that programs targeting these key risk factors should be implemented, especially multiple‐component community‐based programs. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.