ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes whether aggressive behavior in childhood predicts antisocial development. It shows how aggressive behavior is patterned with other problem behaviors and how the patterns predict crime and other problems in social functioning. The chapter concerns the future of criminal offenders, that is, in what respect the individuals who had committed offenses at different times in their life course differed from nonoffenders in personality characteristics and social and psychological functioning in middle age. Developmental psychologists generally use the concept of problem behavior for antisocial behavior and include in it various forms of externalizing problem behaviors such as aggression and disobedience, and norm-breaking behaviors such as dishonesty, stealing, and truancy. Criminologists categorize antisocial behavior on the basis of offenses committed by a person who has passed the crime responsibility. Aggressive behavior is generally considered an antecedent of criminal behavior.
