Delinquent behavior among boys contagious

MONTREAL, July 20 (UPI) -- The more intense the contact with the juvenile justice system, the greater its negative impact on boys, Canadian and Italian researchers found.

The 20-year study, conducted by researchers of the University of Montreal and the University of Genoa, sought boys from kindergarten who were at risk for delinquent behavior and who were enrolled at 53 schools from the poorest neighborhoods in Montreal.

Impulsive boys with inadequate supervision, poor families and deviant friends were more likely to commit criminal acts that land them in juvenile court, the researchers said.

Some 779 participants were interviewed annually from the age of 10-17. By their mid-20s, some 17.6 percent of participants had adult criminal records for infractions including 17.9 percent for homicide; 31.2 percent for arson; 25.5 percent for prostitution; 16.4 percent for drug possession and 8.8 percent for impaired driving.

"For boys who had been through the juvenile justice system, compared to boys with similar histories without judicial involvement, the odds of adult judicial interventions increased almost seven-fold," study co-author Richard E. Tremblay of the University of Montreal said in a statement.

"Our findings take on even greater importance given that the juvenile justice system in the province of Quebec has the reputation of being among the best."

Putting deviant adolescents together creates a culture of deviance, which increases the likelihood of continued criminal behavior, Tremblay said.

The findings were published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.