ABSTRACT
It is a sad fact that some small children carry with them characteristics, sometimes indefinable, which cause experienced teachers and social workers to predict that they will become aggressive perpetrators who are likely to cause harm to their peers or others in some way. This early damning of a child may be unprofessional, discriminatory and set to create a self-fulfilling prophecy but still it happens because many of the predictions are accurate. Some children do grow up to follow in the troubled footsteps of their parents or older siblings; their disaffection and hostility evident at school perhaps turns to delinquency and violence when out of it. This cycle of hostility and aggression is clearly evident when young people turn to lawbreaking in the same way as their older siblings or parents; different professionals will see the same cyclic phenomena operating within the school, the home and the community (Randall, 1996).
