ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the cumulative processes of risk and promotive factors. It argues that criminological theories can be enhanced in at least two other ways, first by incorporating past development. Then, by incorporating possible future development based on knowledge of the development of children in other longitudinal studies. Many criminologists propose that a child's development from less serious problem behaviours to serious delinquency fits a hierarchical, developmental model that can represent individuals' escalation from persistent minor disruptive behaviours to serious delinquent acts. The pathway model accounts for the majority of the most seriously affected boys, that is, the self-reported high-rate offenders and court-reported delinquents. Evidence for the escalation of disruptive behaviours according to pathways also fits psychiatric findings of a hierarchical, escalation model in disruptive behaviours disorders. Both the Loeber and the Keenan and Shaw pathway models have in common the operation of selection processes, starting with a broad base of children with age-normative problem behaviours.
