Juvenile Delinquency: Father Absence, Conduct Disorder, and Substance Abuse as Risk Factor Triad

Abstract

This study investigated risk factors for juvenile delinquency within family structure, personality, and diagnostic variables in 75 juvenile delinquents referred for forensic assessment. A considerable amount of detrimental family characteristics were demonstrated: 66% of all juveniles had experienced father deprivation, 20% had never been living with the father, and 25% had an alcoholic father. The most negative effects were registered in 32 juvenile delinquents growing up without a father and also reporting a negative relationship to their mother. Here, conduct disorder, alcohol abuse as comorbidity, and paternal alcoholism were diagnosed more often as compared to juveniles experiencing father deprivation but who reported a positive relationship with their mothers. In a comparison between violent and nonviolent offender subgroups, a significantly higher frequency of substance abuse was obtained in the violent offenders. Moreover, trends towards more father deprivation and conduct disorder were registered in the violent offenders. Finally, results from multivariate analyses of all variable sets pointed to a triad of risk factors involved in juvenile violent offending: a diagnosis of conduct disorder, family psychopathology, especially father deprivation, and substance abuse. The role of protective influences and implications for intervention programs and prognosis are discussed.

Keywords:

• juvenile delinquincy
• risk factors
• father abuse
• substance abuse
• conduct disorder

Notes

*p < .05.

** p < .01.