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Family Risk Factors For Antisocial Behavior Among Young People

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Family risk factors for antisocial behavior among young people include abuse / neglect; low levels of parental involvement; high levels of hostility, conflict and aggression within the family; parental criminality; family conflicts; inadequate parental supervision; early parental loss; and emotional deprivation. OJJDP identified several risk factors related to the family who have an established relationship with juvenile delinquency, including factors such as antisocial parents, poor family management practices, child abuse, low levels of parental involvement, and separation between parents and children (Hawkins et al., 2000). Risk factors related to the family, with perhaps the strongest predictive utility for juvenile antisocial behavior are domestic violence.
Young people who are exposed to domestic violence and / or abuse of children participate in the highest levels of violent behavior that young families with less violence. Widom (1989), abused and neglected children were 38% more likely to be arrested for a violent crime than children who had not been abused or neglected. Patterson argues that: aggressive children tend to imitate the aggressive parents and parents of aggressive children tend to reinforce the aggression to respond with attention or approval. Another element model of Patterson is the supervisory role of parents in the development of aggressive behavior among adolescents. Patterson suggests that aggression among adolescents is poor parental

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