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Handbook of Child Psychopathology pp 197–217Cite as

Juvenile Delinquency

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Abstract

Juvenile delinquency has garnered the attention of social scientists for the better part of a century. Unlike the attention paid to most other forms of child disturbance, this attention has not come exclusively nor even in the majority from the mainstream of psychological inquiry. Instead, delinquency has been viewed primarily as a “social problem,” of interest to sociologists, or as an adolescent transition period evoking psychoanalytic interpretations. This emphasis is reflected in the accumulated delinquency literature. Theoretical formulations on delinquency have generally been of either a sociological (e.g., Elliott, Ageton, and Canter, 1979) or a psychoanalytic (see review by Gold and Petronio, 1980) perspective. The classic treatment studies of delinquency have historically been guided by social work strategies (Powers and Witmer, 1951) or psychoanalytic principles (Redl and Wineman, 1951), and until recently, the major etiological studies have been large-scale sociological investigations (McCord and McCord, 1959; Nye, 1958; West and Farrington, 1973, 1977; Wolfgang, Figlio, and Sellin, 1972). These approaches have added immensely to our knowledge and understanding of delinquent behavior. However, they do not address juvenile delinquency with a direct concern about the pathological significance of delinquent behavior. It is the intent of this chapter to focus primarily on juvenile delinquency as it reflects child and adolescent psychopathology, and to explore the developmental course and significance of this class of disorders.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Associated Catholic Charities of New Orleans, Inc., and Moore Arthur Associates, Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana, 70130, USA

    Dennis R. Moore & Judy L. Arthur

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  1. Dennis R. Moore
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  1. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

    Thomas H. Ollendick

  2. Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Michel Hersen

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Moore, D.R., Arthur, J.L. (1989). Juvenile Delinquency. In: Ollendick, T.H., Hersen, M. (eds) Handbook of Child Psychopathology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1162-2_9

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