ABSTRACT
One of the most promising, and therefore the most important, methods of dealing with youth crime is by ameliorating the conditions of life that drive young people to commit crimes and that undermine the restraining rules and institutions erected by society against antisocial conduct (Arnold and Jordan 1998; Thornberry et al. 1991). The evidence examined in Chapter 2 suggests that the relationship between parent and child is the mechanism that determines whether tendencies towards aggressive and antisocial behaviour are inhibited or allowed to develop, and that youth offending behaviour must be addressed in the context of the family and not just the child.
