ABSTRACT

Beliefs about the nature of personality development and social behavior have been prominent in the working assumptions of juvenile courts over the past century. There has been, however, considerable ambiguity about (a) what constitutes a developmental perspective and (b) what may be its distinctive contribution to understanding deviant behavior and antisocial behavior. In this chapter, we describe a longitudinal study and the fresh information that it provides on the development of aggressive and antisocial behavior. We then examine some implications for design and theory.