OBJECTIVE:Psychopathic symptoms have long been studied in samples of justice-involved youth. Collectively, findings suggest early-life adversities (ELAs) like abuse and maltreatment are linked with increases in symptomology. Yet these studies infrequently consider the wider definitions of ELA utilized by many researchers across fields of developmental and Health Psychology, which also include experiences of general household dysfunction. HYPOTHESES:Greater ELA exposure will be associated with increases in psychopathic symptomology, both at study outset and across time. Additionally, ELA will be more strongly linked to behavioral symptoms than emotional or social symptoms. METHOD:The present study utilized publicly available data from a large, longitudinal sample of justice-involved males (the Pathways to Desistance study; Mage = 16.09 years at baseline, 42.4% African American, 34.0% Hispanic American, 18.9% non-Hispanic White, 2.2% Native American, and 2.5% other race/ethnicity) to generate a new (to the data set) measure of ELA modeled after the popular Adverse Childhood Experience questionnaire that included nine unique categories of adversity. This scale was used to predict (a) overall psychopathic symptoms and subscales at baseline (using an interview-based measure) and (b) trajectories of change in symptoms across the study period (using a self-report measure, covering 7 years of development). RESULTS:Results indicate that general ELA is associated with psychopathic symptoms at baseline and was not associated with rates of change across time (though patterns vary by subdimension). Analyses comparing types of adversity (abuse and neglect vs. household dysfunction) suggest this effect is imparted by abuse and neglect and not broader environmental dysfunction. These results were consistent after accounting for co-occurring anxiety, which is sometimes used to explore primary and secondary variants of psychopathy. CONCLUSIONS:These results add to existing literature linking serious adversity to psychopathic symptoms and extend findings by considering type of adversity for the first time longitudinally in a sample of justice-involved youth. Findings are situated within developmental theories of psychopathy in relation to ELA, and practical implications of the findings for practitioners and policy makers are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Youth involved in the juvenile legal system face elevated rates of internalizing and externalizing behavioral health problems, including distress, substance use, and antisocial behavior. However, research rarely examines how these problems co-develop and relate to long-term legal outcomes. This study applied group-based multi-trajectory modeling to longitudinal data from 1,216 system-involved male youth (Mage = 15.29; 46% Latino/Hispanic, 37% Black, 15% White, 2% multiracial/other) to uncover patterns of co-occurring externalizing (antisocial behavior, harmful substance use, antagonistic traits) and internalizing (distress) problems and their association with rearrest in young adulthood. We identified eight unique trajectory groups, three of which showed elevated rearrest risk: (1) youth with moderate externalizing and internalizing problems that worsened over time, (2) youth with high-decreasing externalizing problems but moderate-increasing internalizing problems, and (3) youth with high-stable antagonistic traits in the absence of other elevated problems. Membership in these high-risk groups was predicted by specific contextual factors - including peer deviance, violence exposure, negative home environment, and low school orientation - highlighting the role of both risk and protective influences. These findings underscore the utility of longitudinal, dimensional behavioral health assessment in identifying long-term system-involvement risk and tailoring intervention strategies for system-involved youth.

Atypical lying (i.e., dishonesty that is excessive, impulsive, for fun, or lacks clear motive) may signal broader developmental risks. This study examined whether baseline levels and changes in parenting, peer, and individual factors were associated with trajectories of atypical lying from ages 14 to 26. Data from 1354 participants (86.41% male; baseline Mage = 16.04; 41.5% Black, 33.5% Hispanic, 20.2% White, 4.8% Other) in the Pathways to Desistance study were analyzed. Results indicate that higher risk (parental hostility, antisocial peer influence, and perceived thrill of crime) and lower protective factors (parental warmth, resistance to peer influence, and psychosocial maturity) were associated with more persistently atypical lying scores. Notably, we highlight which factors are most strongly related to the growth of atypical lying and ways to target them through programs aimed to promote honesty. Overall, our findings underscore the role of early contexts and developmental synchrony in atypical lying.

OBJECTIVE:Tools for measuring psychopathy have been widely used as predictive assessments of future offending in correctional settings. Yet, research concerning juvenile psychopathy has yielded mixed results as to its use as a long-term predictive measure of future psychopathy and offending. The present study assesses the predictive utility of two measures of juvenile psychopathy on subsequent psychopathic traits, self-reported offending, and arrests across 7 key years of development. HYPOTHESES:We hypothesized that both measures of juvenile psychopathic traits would predict future psychopathy, offending, and official arrests but that this predictive utility would significantly diminish from adolescence to young adulthood. METHOD:This study used data from Pathways to Desistance, a longitudinal study of 1,170 male youth adjudicated for a serious crime (aged 14-17 at baseline; M = 16.6) who were interviewed across 11 intervals over a 7-year period. A series of mixed-effects models predicted subsequent psychopathy, self-reported offending, and official arrests across 7 years from two measures of juvenile psychopathy: the Psychopathy Checklist-Youth Version and the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory. Interactions with time were assessed to probe whether predictive utility attenuated across the study period. RESULTS:First, psychopathy scores at the first study follow-up predicted future psychopathy scores, but this effect significantly weakened across time. Total psychopathic traits and domain scores significantly predicted greater self-reported offending, but this predictive effect diminished over time (with the exception of the interpersonal domain). Initial psychopathy scores also predicted higher odds of official arrest, which did not attenuate over time. CONCLUSIONS:While some predictive utility of juvenile psychopathy measures was evidenced, the ability of these measures to predict outcomes across time significantly declined. These findings call into question whether psychopathic traits measured in adolescence should be used to make predictions about long-term recidivism risk. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS:Psychosis is a heterogeneous phenomenon that emerges across a severity spectrum. Attenuated psychotic symptoms, or psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), reflect potential risk factors for formal psychosis and other clinical outcomes. There has historically been a widespread misconception that individuals who experience symptoms of psychosis are dangerous and prone to aggressive behavior. However, empirical evidence reveals only a modest link between psychosis and aggression. The existing associations are sometimes linked to a set of psychotic symptoms known as threat/control-override (TCO) symptoms that are often amenable to treatment. Despite research linking TCO symptoms and aggressive behavior in formal psychosis samples, studies in populations with PLEs are lacking. In line with the TCO model, we hypothesized that a subset of PLEs representing threat perception and control would have unique positive associations on aggression in the sample. STUDY DESIGN:The present study examined the relation between PLEs and aggression in help-seeking adolescents (n = 129). Psychotic-like experiences were assessed by parent/caregiver report (Prime Screen-Revised-Parent/Caregiver Version), and aggression was measured using a parent-rated assessment of adolescent behavior (Behavioral Assessment System for Children, Second Edition). STUDY RESULTS:Results supported study hypotheses, revealing small, independent effects of threat perception and control, in addition to a significant combined effect of these variables (TCO) on aggression. CONCLUSIONS:Findings support the use of symptom-specific measures of PLEs, including those aligning with the TCO model, to investigate the relation between attenuated psychotic symptomatology and aggression.

Moral disengagement (MD), or the cognitive strategies used to avoid feelings of guilt in contexts of moral transgression, has been an established cognitive risk factor for engagement in antisocial and criminal behaviors. In justice-involved samples, MD is most frequently measured using the 32-item Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement Scale (MMD). The current study aims to develop a short-form version of the MMD with strong psychometric properties and predictive utility. Using data from a longitudinal study of justice-involved youth, we generated theoretically and data-driven short-form versions of the MMD. We then validated and compared the short-form versions to the full MMD in a different sample of justice-involved youth. Results indicate that a data-driven 11-item short form consistently performed well across both samples. Recommendations are made for future researchers interested in exploring MD, and implications in risk assessment are discussed.

BACKGROUND:Callous-unemotional (CU) traits were recently added as a diagnostic specifier for disruptive behavior disorders, largely due to their prognostic utility. However, past longitudinal research has yielded mixed results when investigating associations between CU traits and long-term outcomes, particularly when controlling for the individual's level of antisocial behavior. METHODS:The current study investigated the longitudinal predictive utility of CU traits in a sample of 1,216 adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system who were followed for 7 years after their first arrest. Growth models of CU traits throughout adolescence were used to predict a variety of young adult outcomes (e.g., aggression, financially-motivated crime, and social impairment) while controlling for the trajectory of antisocial behavior throughout adolescence. RESULTS:Results indicated that adolescent CU traits predicted a variety of antisocial and social outcomes. While several of these associations were no longer significant after accounting for antisocial behavior, CU traits incrementally predicted several early adulthood outcomes (e.g., more arrests, greater aggression, lower quality relationships with friends and romantic partners) when controlling for both the level and degree of change in antisocial behavior. CONCLUSIONS:Results support that CU traits are clinically useful when identifying risk for problematic outcomes and highlight the need for effective intervention for youth with elevated CU traits.

Prior research has examined individuals' perceptions of punishments (PP) and rewards (PR) for crime, as well as their use of moral disengagement (MD), to understand why adolescents and young adults commit crimes. However, the joint development of these cognitions as a broader risk-perception mechanism remains understudied. This paper explores the independent and relational development of these processes in justice-involved youth. Data from 1,170 male participants (42.1% Black, 34.0% Hispanic, 19.2% White, 4.6% Other) in the Pathways to Desistance study were analyzed using a three-variable autoregressive latent trajectory model. MD, PP, and PR were measured across 11 waves and 7 years, allowing for the simultaneous examination of individual trajectories and their bidirectional relationships from adolescence to young adulthood. Although PP increased and MD and PR decreased across adolescence, all three exhibited decelerations in their change prior to young adulthood. Moreover, bidirectional relationships between the processes suggest the presence of harmful developmental cycles that may prematurely halt justice-involved youths' cognitive growth related to risk perception. Findings suggest that distorted risk and reward perceptions of crime, amplified by MD, may create harmful developmental cycles during adolescence that distort risk perception in adulthood. Further, the decelerations from late adolescence to young adulthood (~ages 18-22) point to a salient critical transitional period of development for these processes. These results may help inform developmentally tailored programs for at-risk youth. By targeting PP, PR, and MD as intertwined processes, interventions may recalibrate maladaptive perceptions, disrupt risky decision-making cycles, and reduce long-term offending.

Black males in the United States are at heightened risk for victimization. Additionally, Black males are overrepresented in the legal system, compounding their risk for victimization. Survivors of victimization have been shown to develop more pessimistic views of their future. For Black male youth, these beliefs are essential for fostering motivation and, ultimately, driving their success. The present study examines whether ethnic identity buffers the association between victimization (direct and vicarious) and future expectations. Participants were 449 Black-identifying male youth arrested for serious felony offenses. They were interviewed at multiple intervals over 7 years. Fixed-effects regression analyses were conducted to estimate whether the association between victimization and future expectations varied as a function of ethnic identity. Results revealed that having low ethnic identity resulted in diminished future expectations after direct victimization. There was no association between direct victimization and future expectations at mean levels of ethnic identity. Interestingly, having high ethnic identity resulted in increased future expectations after direct victimization. No significant associations were observed when examining vicarious victimization. These findings demonstrate that direct victimization has the potential to diminish Black male youths' future expectations. An average or strong sense of ethnic identity, however, can preserve or enhance these beliefs, even after direct victimization. This study identifies ethnic identity as one potential avenue to buffer the consequences of direct victimization and foster these expectations in spite of being victimized. These findings may inform future work aimed at promoting resilience and strengthening youths' belief in themselves by nurturing their racial or ethnic identity.

Justice-involved boys are more likely to become teenage fathers than their community peers. This is linked to numerous negative outcomes, including increased delinquent behavior. To help legal practitioners better identify which boys are at risk of becoming a teen parent, this study identifies factors at the time of boys’ very first arrest that prospectively predict their odds of becoming a teen father. Data were drawn from a longitudinal study of 1216 adolescent boys at the time of their first arrest. Binary logistic regression models were used to predict the odds of becoming a teen father across three domains: individual factors, social and contextual factors, and risky behaviors. Approximately 15% of the total sample (n = 171) reported becoming a teen father after their first arrest. At the time of first arrest, poorer neighborhood conditions, increased peer delinquency, substance use, and self-reported offending history increased the odds that boys would become a teen father. Additional models indicated that substance use was the strongest driver of teen fatherhood. However, all factors failed to reached significance once condom use was included in this model. Practical implications for policymakers are discussed, along with suggestions for interventions to reduce teen pregnancy.

HIV rates among young adults remain high, and those impacted by the justice system are at particular risk. Understanding the factors associated with HIV testing, as well as determining changes in risk behavior after an HIV test, may inform interventions to reduce HIV prevalence among this population. As such, this study sought to determine the individual, contextual, and demographic factors associated with HIV testing among legal-system-impacted young adults and to explore whether a first HIV test is associated with changes in future risk behavior when compared to Never Tested individuals. Significant predictors of HIV testing included the absence of a biological father (OR = 0.68, p = 0.049), a higher variety of lifetime offending (OR = 4.74, p = 0.015), and living in Philadelphia vs. Phoenix (OR = 3.07, p < 0.001). Compared to those never tested for HIV, those newly tested significantly increased in their number of unprotected sexual partners (b = 0.52, p < 0.001) and in the number of times they had unprotected sex (b = 0.47, p < 0.001) one year later. This study is one of the first to assess predictors of HIV testing among legal-system-impacted young adults living across both community and carceral settings and to assess changes in risk behavior before and after a first HIV test. Future studies should investigate changes in risk behavior among those newly tested to inform HIV testing and care improvement interventions for this population.

This study examines the role of future expectations in influencing internalizing and externalizing problems in justice-involved youth. Using a sample of 1,216 male adolescents recruited after their first arrest, we explored how shifts in their expectations for success predicted changes in their internalizing (e.g. depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms) and externalizing (e.g. proactive and reactive aggression) behaviors over a five-year period. Within-individual change models revealed that lower expectations significantly predicted increases in both forms of internalizing but only reactive aggression. These results underscore the detrimental impact of diminished expectations on mental health and behavioral outcomes in this high-risk population. The study highlights the need for interventions that enhance future expectations and foster hope among justice-involved youth to mitigate the risk of developing mental health issues and exhibiting aggressive behaviors. The potential benefits of promoting these expectations through the use of targeted support strategies and resources during the re-entry phase to deter these negative outcomes are discussed.

OBJECTIVE:Youth who enter the legal system exhibit higher rates of mental illness than their peers. It remains unclear whether continued legal system contact exacerbates these issues, especially among Latino and Black youth who are disproportionately involved. This study examined the associations between various forms of legal system contact, anxiety, and depression among Latino, Black, and White justice-involved youth over three years following their first arrest. We hypothesized that system contact would predict increases in anxiety and depression symptoms across all youth, with a stronger effect among Latino and Black youth. METHOD:Data were used from 1,160 male youth (48.24% Latino, 36.77% Black, 14.99% White; Mage = 15.27) in the Crossroads Study. Youth were recruited post-first arrest and interviewed biannually for three years. Between-within models were estimated separately for each racial/ethnic group to assess whether continued system contact (police stop, re-arrest, probation, detention) was linked to higher anxiety and depression levels (between-person) and whether contact predicted individual-level increases in these symptoms (within-person). RESULTS:At the between-person level, Black youth stopped by police exhibited higher depression levels than those not stopped. Latino youth placed in detention exhibited higher anxiety levels than those not detained. At the within-person level, among Latino youth, probation was linked to increased anxiety and re-arrest to increased depression. Among Black youth, detention was linked to increased anxiety. System contact was not associated with internalizing symptoms among White youth. CONCLUSION:Legal system contact is associated with adverse mental health outcomes, particularly for Latino and Black youth.

Justice-involved adolescents are at increased risk for poor academic outcomes and reoffending. However, strong bonds with teachers have been shown to promote academic success and encourage desistance. The current study examined whether more hopeful future expectations mediated the association between student-teacher relationships and justice-involved adolescents’ offending and grades, respectively, using data from a longitudinal study of male youth recruited after their first arrest. Findings revealed that stronger student-teacher relationships predicted more positive future expectations which, indirectly, predicted better grades and less offending. These findings underscore the mechanism by which justice-involved adolescents’ school connectedness cultivates hopeful expectancies for the future, which can deter delinquency and promote academic success. Implications for fostering these relationships during re-entry for justice-involved adolescents are discussed.

We leveraged administrative and self-report data to compare male youth who were involved in the juvenile justice system (juvenile-justice-only (JJ) youth) and who were additionally involved with the child welfare system (dual-system (DS) youth) in Orange County, California. Data were available for 532 youth (346 JJ youth, 186 DS youth). Analyses examined differences in individual factors, contextual factors, and offending behaviour before and at age 18. Although DS youth had more arrests before age 18 compared to JJ youth, the groups did not differ on self-reported offending and other factors (i.e., mental health, substance use, neighbourhood disadvantage, peer delinquency). Moreover, these higher arrest rates were significant even after controlling for self-reported offending and exposure to violence. Thus, results isolate child welfare involvement as uniquely linked to a greater risk for arrest. Data expands existing knowledge on high-risk youth populations who have involvement in one or more systems of care. Discussion includes implications for researchers and practitioners, including the importance of combining self-report and administrative data to distinguish between the detection of behaviour within a system (e.g., arrest) from the behaviour itself (e.g., offending).

Examining the congruence, or consistency, between stated (expressed attitudes, beliefs) and revealed preferences (observed behavior) may be instrumental in understanding criminal decision making. To study this, we focus on the incongruence between stated preferences for staying out of trouble with the law and self-reported criminal behavior and draw from trait theories, social control and behavioral addictions to develop exploratory hypotheses. Data from the Pathways to Desistance and Crossroads studies were used to estimate group-based trajectory models. Results show heterogeneous trends in congruence. Specifically, substance dependence is significantly related to an increase in the probability of incongruence across all trajectory groups.

There is robust evidence that juvenile justice contact during formative years is associated with deleterious outcomes. The effect of juvenile court intervention on youth homelessness, however, has received scant empirical attention despite evidence that many justice-involved youth are represented in the unhoused youth and adult population. This study leverages data collected from the Crossroads Study (N = 1115), a longitudinal, multi-site study to explore the impact of formal processing on subsequent experiences with homelessness. This study found that even when accounting for the effect of detention and other factors associated with youth homelessness, youth who were formally processed were twice as likely to report living on the streets compared to their informally-processed peers. These findings highlight the need for researchers to move beyond investigations of criminal justice outcomes to reveal the other ways in which justice-system involvement during adolescence can alter life course trajectories and expose youth to adverse experiences.

This study longitudinally investigates how individual and environmental factors predict thrilling perceptions of criminal behavior using a sample of 1009 justice-involved youth (ages 15–21) who were followed over 7 years. Mixed effect regression models indicated that peer delinquency, youth offending, and impulsive-irresponsible traits were associated with thrilling perceptions of both violent and non-violent crime. Comparatively, callous-unemotional traits predicted only the thrill of violent crime but not non-violent crime. Additionally, the association between peer delinquency and the thrill of non-violent crime waned as participants aged, suggesting a decreased susceptibility to peer influence over time. These individual differences, paired with these socially transmitted beliefs from peers, highlight how thrilling perceptions of crime may be reinforced by youth’s characteristics or vicariously through their peers. However, while youth may age out of susceptibility to peer influence, these other influences sustained across age. These findings advance our understanding of the persistence and influence of adolescents’ experiences in shaping thrilling perceptions of crime, hinting at potential mechanisms that contribute to antisocial behavior.

With high rates of violence exposure among justice-involved youth, it is critical to identify factors that might impact the likelihood of youth engaging in violence themselves. One such factor is sensitivity to context, which describes how sensitive youth are to experiences in their environment. Using an ethnically diverse sample of justice-involved male adolescents (47% Latino, 38% Black/African American, 15% White) aged 13-17 at the time of their first arrest, the results of this study indicate that exposure to violence was related to increased violent behavior six months later, and this effect was strongest among youth who were low in sensitivity to context. These findings may help practitioners identify which youth are at greatest risk for violence in a policy-relevant population.

Antisocial and illegal behavior generally declines as youth approach adulthood, but there is significant individual variation in the timing of the peak and decline of offending from adolescence to young adulthood. There are two primary research questions in the present study. First, are there subgroups of youth who follow similar patterns of offending over the nine years after their first arrest? Second, what baseline factors predict which youth will follow each pattern of offending? Data were drawn from the Crossroads study, which includes a sample of racially and ethnically diverse boys who were interviewed regularly for 9 years following their first arrest. Boys were between 13 and 17 years old at the start of the study and were approximately 24-25 years old at the final interview. Trajectories were measured with youths' self-reported offending using latent class growth analysis (LCGA). Results indicated that there were four subgroups of youth: a stable low group (55%), an escalating group (23%), a short-term recidivist group (15%), and a persistently high group (7%). Several baseline factors distinguished the groups. In particular, the results indicated that youth who were informally processed after their first arrest were more likely to be in the low offending group than any of the other LCGA groups. Age at first arrest, peer delinquency, exposure to violence, substance use, callous-unemotional traits, physical aggression, and perceptions of police legitimacy were also significantly related to group membership. Results suggest that certain risk factors identified after youths' first arrest may predict which youth continue to offend and which desist.