Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, impulsivity, and low self-control: which is most useful in understanding and preventing offending?

ABSTRACT

Among the most important individual factors that predict offending are hyperactivity, impulsivity, and poor attention. Psychiatrists regard these factors as a clinical syndrome termed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This article reviews the most recent definitions of ADHD in DSM-5 and the extent to which it predicts later offending and substance use. Psychologists focus on risk factors such as impulsivity rather than ADHD, and sociologists assume that all these factors reflect low self-control. This article also discusses the value of focusing on impulsivity and low self-control as risk factors for offending, and the usefulness of risk-focused prevention (targeting these risk factors) in reducing offending, compared with methods of treating ADHD (e.g. using Ritalin). We argue that the psychological approach of studying risk factors such as impulsivity is preferable to defining an ADHD psychiatric syndrome or a possibly tautological construct of self-control. The article concludes by recommending new longitudinal research that is needed to advance knowledge about developmental sequences including hyperactivity, impulsivity, poor attention, offending, and later life outcomes, and new randomized experiments that are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of different intervention programmes.

KEYWORDS:

• ADHD
• hyperactivity
• impulsivity
• poor attention
• low self-control
• offending

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marta M. Aguilar-Cárceles

Marta M. Aguilar-Cárceles is a Lecturer in the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology in the Faculty of Law, University of Murcia, Spain. Her professional trajectory started by obtaining degrees in Psychology, Criminology (with an Extraordinary Award) and Law. She continued with Masters Degrees in Penitentiary Law and Forensic Psychology. Her PhD in Law was on legal, psychological and criminological implications of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and she has several publications concerned with criminal responsibility in mentally ill people.

David P. Farrington

David P. Farrington, O.B.E, is Emeritus Professor of Psychological Criminology in the Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University. He has received the Stockholm Prize in Criminology, and he is a former President of the American Society of Criminology. His major research interest is in developmental criminology, and he is Director of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, which is a prospective longitudinal survey of over 400 London males from age 8 to age 56. He has published over 100 books, monographs and government reports, and over 700 journal articles and book chapters, on criminological and psychological topics.