A Test of the Dual Taxonomy Explanation of Life-Course-Persistent Offending: Individual Risk, Social Bonds, and Within-Individual Change in Delinquency in Children With Early Police Contact

According to Moffitt’s theory of life-course-persistent offending, an early onset of delinquent behavior is often indicative of a pattern of delinquency that is persistent and insusceptible to outside influence. Prior research however has identified ample variation in the delinquent patterns of children who engage in early-onset delinquency, raising questions on the susceptibility of their behavior to external factors. Here, we use longitudinal data of children with a first police contact prior to age 12 to examine the association between within-individual changes in social bonds with parents, peers, and school and self-reported delinquency during the transition into adolescence, as well as their interaction with pre/perinatal risk and parental offending. Results from hybrid random effect models show that an increase in involvement with parents with a criminal history and delinquent peers, as well as an increase in skipping class are associated with an increase in children’s delinquent behavior.