A rich fantasy life may prevent the acting out of violent wishes in children. Investigations of the relationship between television and violence have been inconclusive, but children lacking in creative imagination typically come from groups having higher violent crime rates. Characteristics of the potentially violent child include a history of…

This paper discusses the results of a study that investigated youth and adolescent psychosocial variables associated with community exclusion and whether there are consistent pathways of exclusion associated with those psychosocial variables or clusters of variables. The investigators obtained a complete set of demographic data on 35 adolescents…

Although the problem of aggression generates considerable social concern, aggressive delinquents are rarely provided with more than minimal treatment following legal processing and incarceration. When treatment is available, it usually consists of some form of ineffective or even counterproductive punishment administered in the context of a token…

The former HEW National Strategy for Youth Development Model was a community-based planning and procedural tool designed to enhance positive youth development and prevent delinquency through a process of youth needs assessment, development of targeted programs, and program impact evaluation. A series of 12 Impact Scales most directly reflect the…

This paper concerns early social adaptational and family antecedents of teenage delinquent behavior in a population of black first graders who were reassessed 10 years after the initial study. Subjects were 705 teenagers who had participated in the 1966-67 Woodlawn study and whose mothers had given permission for reassessment. At the time of the…

This position paper explores the issue of violence in northern Canadian schools and personal perceptions and reactions to the violent events. Spindler's phrase "sociocultural contextualization" is viewed as placing and examining education and the educative process within the social and cultural environment of the community served by the…

Predicting occurrences of violent behavior in the population of emotionally disturbed criminal offenders was investigated by identifying a pattern of characteristics that significantly discriminates between violent and nonviolent offenders. Subjects were 149 current and former male patients in the Forensics Division of St. Elizabeths Hospital in…

Violence among youth has reached epidemic proportions. Every five minutes a child is arrested for a violent crime. To understand this trend, this paper examines characteristics of adolescent males who come into contact with the juvenile justice system. The study focuses on drug and alcohol involvement, the relevance of education, sexual practices,…

To test whether parental behavior has an important impact on a child's behavior in later life, records describing home atmosphere during childhood were linked with records of subsequent criminality gathered when subjects were middle aged. Discriminant function analysis based on six variables describing home atmosphere was highly successful in…

This paper reviews the literature on the secondary prevention of delinquency, examining the commonalities that characterize successful programs. The first part reviews standard approaches to secondary prevention of delinquency, such as diversion of responsibility for delinquents from the juvenile justice system to family, school and…

The increasing percentage of children living apart from their natural fathers is an unpredicted, and not widely discussed, trend. Fatherlessness is a major force behind many disturbing U.S. social problems. The institution of marriage acts as culture's chief vehicle to bind men to their children. The absence of fathers from children's lives is one…

This paper constructs a multi-systemic picture of the impact of family violence on children, families, and society through a review of the empirical literature in these areas and their inter-relationships. Findings from the review include: (1) the experience of physical abuse has been associated with aggression toward others, children who have…

Increased juvenile violence in schools has led to suggested solutions that are politically expedient but fail to address what makes violence so appealing. Instead of school uniforms, conflict resolution programs, or media rating systems, a grass roots approach of alternative programs, parental involvement, and youth support systems could repair…