Towards an Explanatory Taxonomy of Adolescent Delinquents: Identifying Several Social-Psychological Profiles

• Published in: Journal of quantitative criminology Vol. 24; no. 2; pp. 179 - 203
• Main Authors: Brennan, Tim, Breitenbach, Markus, Dieterich, William
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer Science+Business Media 01.06.2008; Springer US; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Antisocial behavior; Child psychology; Cluster analysis; Criminals; Criminology; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Hostility; Human aggression; Juvenile delinquency; Law and Criminology; Methodology of the Social Sciences; Original Paper; Parents; Personality; Prior convictions; Sociology; Statistics; Taxonomy; Teenagers; Young offenders; Cluster analysis; Delinquent types; Bootstrap aggregation; Taxonomy; Patterns
• ISSN: 0748-4518; 1573-7799
• DOI: 10.1007/s10940-008-9045-7

Taxonomic structure is examined in two large samples of delinquent youth in a domain of socio-psychological and personality factors. This paper offers a partial empirical test of the overlapping theoretical taxonomies of Moffitt (Pshycol Rev 100:674–701, 1993), Lykken (The antisocial personalities, 1995) and Mealey (1995). The first sample consisted of juvenile offenders (n = 1,572) from three state systems. Multiple cluster analysis methods were applied (Wards method, standard K-means, bootstrapped K-means and a semi-supervised pattern recognition technique). Core or exemplar cases were identified by means of a voting procedure. Seven clusters recurrently emerged across replications. While clear analogues of Moffitt's two main categories were found, several additional stable subtypes emerged that were clearly reminiscent of Lykken's sociopathic, neurotic-internalizing and "normal" types. However, boundaries between types were fuzzy and unstable, and many unclassified cases existed. Internal validation was assessed by cross-method verification. External validation assessed type differentiation on several delinquent behaviors. Finally, generalizability was assessed by repeating the clustering on a large replication sample (n = 1,453) from another state. Six of the seven initial types re-emerged.