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Risk for Girls’ Delinquency: Early Intervention to Promote Healthy Development

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Delinquent Girls

Abstract

Adult criminality is best understood in the context of delinquent behavior in childhood and adolescence (Farrington 1991). The first predictive models of criminal behavior were created long ago, but in recent years these models have been refined and provide a great deal of information about the pathways leading to criminal behavior (Moffitt et al. 2001; Pepler et al. 2010a). Boys and girls on the early onset pathway often experience the most troubled and diverse range of problems, which persist as they transition into adolescence and adulthood (Moffitt et al. 2001; Odgers et al. 2008; Yuile 2007). Because of the high prevalence of males in contact with the law, historically this research focused on boys and men. Increasing awareness of girls’ delinquency and associated problems has led researchers and clinicians to advocate for the development of models to understand and address the development of delinquency in girls.

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Correspondence to Alice Rubin-Vaughan .

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Rubin-Vaughan, A., Pepler, D., Walsh, M., Levene, K., Yuile, A. (2012). Risk for Girls’ Delinquency: Early Intervention to Promote Healthy Development. In: Miller, S., Leve, L., Kerig, P. (eds) Delinquent Girls. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0415-6_10

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