Am J Psychiatry 1977; 134:1020-1025
Copyright © 1977 by American Psychiatric Association
Medical histories of delinquent and nondelinquent children: an epidemiological study
DO Lewis and SS Shanok
The authors studies the hospital records of 109 delinquent children and a
matched comparison group of 109 nondelinquent children. The number, reasons
for, and timing of hospital contacts significantly differentiated the
delinquent from the nondelinquent children; perinatal difficulties did not.
The authors hypothesize that an interaction of developmental factors and
parental inadequacies accounts for the clustering of hospital contacts
before age 4 and between ages 14 and 16 in the delinquent sample. They
discuss the implications of their findings for prevention.
