Book Review: Causes of Conduct Disorder and Juvenile Delinquency

• Author: Tiffiney Y. Barfield-Cottledge
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016805275686
• Published date: 01 May 2005
• Date: 01 May 2005
• Subject Matter: Articles

organization, which includes positive relationships between administrators, teachers, and

students; common goals and norms; and a sense of collaboration and involvement.Strategies

that strengthen the communal organization of the school can in turn increase student bond-

ing, counter the negative effects of racial heterogeneity, and lead to reductions in disorder,

delinquency, and victimization. Perhaps the most important contribution of this book is two-

fold: (a) The primary answer to school safety and crime reduction comes not through more

formal social controls, police presence, and security devices, but through improving informal

social controls. (b) Allison Payne directs our attention to what school administrators and

teachers can do to reduce school crime. Strategies to improve relationships among adminis-

trators, teachers, and students are likely to improve the school climate, reduce disorder and

delinquency,make schools safe places in which to learn, and enhance teachers’ ability to help

students meet educational goals.

Richard Lawrence

St. Cloud State University

Causes of Conduct Disorder and Juvenile Delinquency,edited by Benjamin B. Lahey, Terrie

E. Moffitt, and Caspi Avshalom. New York: Guilford, 2003, 370 pp.

DOI: 10.1177/0734016805275686

Over the years, there has been widespread attention given to causes of conduct disorder

and juvenile delinquency. The literature is filled with a plethora of research committed to

identifying risk factors of childhood and adolescent juvenile conduct. However,although the

literature has identified these risk factors, no causal pathways have been presented. In this

edited book, the contributors are put to the challenge of providing testable hypotheses that

explain causal pathways to conduct disorder and juvenile delinquency. Causes of Conduct

Disorder and Juvenile Delinquency is an important addition for researchers, practitioners,

and students who desire to be well informed about the multiple causal mechanisms involved

in early childhood and adolescent conduct disorder and juvenile delinquency. In this volume,

the authors do an outstanding job of defining, explaining, and offering research hypotheses

on causes of conduct disorders.

A lengthy book of 13 chapters, Causes of Conduct Disorder and Juvenile Delinquency

demonstrates the paucity of sources available for the continued study of conduct disorder and

juvenile delinquency.This book is well organized with subheadings and is divided into three

major parts. Part One, “Research and Theoretical Strategies,” contains one chapter. In this

chapter, the author, Michael Rutter,begins with the question, “Why aren’t the causes of anti-

social behavior already well understood?” In answering this question, an examination of the

existing research and theoretical explanations for conduct disorder are discussed. Michael

Rutter postulates that helpful, recent research and theories are filled with weak concepts that

have acted to get in the way of treatment and prevention methods for conduct disorder. He

aggressively advocates for the reexamination of current theories and their application in

explaining causes of conduct disorder.

In Part Two,“General and Integrative Causal Models,” various theoretical models aredis-

cussed. These include chapter 2: Social Learning Model, chapter 3: Life-Course-Persistent

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