Risk Profiles, Trajectories, and Intervention Points for Serious and Chronic Young Offenders

One of the lesser understood research issues about antisocial onset and persistence is whether there are different patterns of risk factors within the broader identified pathways that require distinctive treatment strategies. This article hypothesizes that there are at least five distinct pathways to persistent antisocial behaviour. The pathways are premised upon the developmental perspective and suggest that the experiences of individuals and their exposure to subsequent risk factors are affected by the earliest risk factors to which the individual is exposed. From a policy perspective, development of these pathways focuses on the goal of preventing antisocial onset, or to reduce the likelihood that behaviours will become progressively antisocial, while concurrently encouraging desistance. A key objective is to inform policy-makers about possible program intervention points for specific sets of risk factors, utilizing programs that have already been identified as successful, and developing new experimental programs.