Early identification of potentially criminal children and adolescents

This report identifies risk and protective factors that may affect the risk that a child or an adolescent commits crime when they are older. In addition, it provides an overview of the instruments that can be used for early identification of potentially criminal children and adolescents.
Studies show that individual and family-related factors in particular are decisive with regard to whether children or adolescents later become criminals. Many conflicts between the parents, poor academic skills, frequent change of school and ADHD-like symptoms increase the risk of crime.
Moreover, other studies show that early intervention can reduce the risk. Frequent visits by a health visitor during the first years of a marginalised child's life, high-quality kindergartens and parent training reduce the risk that the child will later become criminal.
There are several instruments that can be used to identify potentially criminal children and adolescents, but only one has been translated and validated in a Danish context.
This report is based on two literature studies as well as data analysis and it has been commissioned and financed by the Danish National Board of Social Services.