Childhood behavior could be one of the biggest predictors of future adult criminal activity according to a new study.

Recently three ISU professors, Matthew DeLisi, Brenda Lohman and Tricia Neppl, along with two other researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Saint Louis University, published a study in the Journal of Criminal Justice pertaining to criminal behavior in children.

The study was produced with the intended purpose of discovering which criminal onset is most important in children and is related to future criminal activity.

There were 252 children living in Pennsylvania juvenile detention centers ranging from ages 14 to 18 who partook in the study. Approximately 75 percent of the participants had been arrested by the age 15 with one participant being arrested for the first time at age 5.

The researchers examined the effects of antisocial behavioral onset, police contact/arrest onset and juvenile court referral onset.

An onset is when the problem behavior begins. From the study, it was discovered that the police contact/arrest onset was the most consistent indicator of delinquent career severity.

The study found that the earlier children started participating in criminal activity the more severe the issue became.

“When someone begins engaging in criminal behavior as a youth, we tend to see them continue this behavior when they are older,” DeLisi said.

Another onset highlighted during the study was the antisocial behavioral onset. This was measured from the diagnosis of participants with attention deficit hyperactive disorder and conduct disorder.

Conduct disorder is where a subject breaks rules in a consistent manner and shows defiance toward authority.

Children in the study who had been diagnosed with ADHD tended to break laws 1.1 years earlier, have the police contacted about them 1.3 years earlier and be referred to juvenile court 0.8 years earlier than other participants in the study without ADHD.

Participants with conduct disorder were arrested on average about a year earlier than other participants without conduct disorder. Overall, people with conduct disorder displayed earlier average onset across all three onsets.

“Children who have been diagnosed with these disorders do not mean that they are going to become a delinquent in the long run,” Lohman said.

Lohman pointed to the early indicators as a way for people to monitor and red flag children with potential problems. She stated that programs and practices need to be promoted for children who have showed these signs of possible criminal activity.

DeLisi highlighted the number of studies that have already been done on the subject matter and how it was helping people understand the issues more.

“The better we further our knowledge about behavior, the better our chances are of preventing this type of behavior,” DeLisi said.