The news of teenagers and even younger children committing ever more serious and violent crimes continues to shock and baffle. The escalating psychological and social toll of youth crime is being paid by all - from victims to offenders to parents and siblings to teachers and to the community as a whole. "Adolescent Reputations and Risk" looks beyond traditional theories to examine, from a solid empirical basis, the motivation and values that make some young people choose antisocial over positive behavior, resulting in potent new insights and possible solutions to this ongoing problem. Synthesizing 15 years of research with delinquent youth, this volume describes the volatile dynamic of child and adolescent social worlds, emphasizing reputation enhancement and goal-setting as bases underlying deviant behavior.In innovative and accessible terms, "Adolescent Reputations and Risk": addresses delinquency throughout the course of childhood and adolescence; offers the first detailed explanation of delinquency by integrating goal-setting and reputation enhancement theories; provides evidence analyzing deviant trends in goal-setting and reputation enhancement terms among primary and high school students; answers key questions on topics such as impulsivity, drug and inhalant use, early-childhood psychopathy, links between ADHD and aggression, and the psychology of loners; and, includes current data on interventions for at-risk youth, including family and school methods, cognitive-behavioral therapy, wilderness and boot camp programs, and interactive multimedia strategies. This volume is an essential resource for clinical child, school, and counseling psychologists; social workers; and, allied education and community mental health professionals and practitioners.

Table of Contents

Youth At-Risk: Choice, Trajectory, and Circumstance.- Reputation Enhancing Goals: The Theory of Deliberate Choice.- Initiating Goals and Reputations.- Accelerating Goals and Reputations.- Sustaining Goals and Reputations.- Developmental Trajectories to Antisocial Behavior.- Severe Antisocial Behavior and the Construct of Psychopathy in Children and Adolescents.- The Fledgling Psychopath Hypothesis: A Matter of Circumstance.- Developing Ecological Measures for the At-Risk Population.- Treatment and Intervention for At-Risk Populations.- Looking Back Moving Forward: Beyond Adolescents.

Author Biography

Dr. Annemaree Carroll is Associate Professor in the School of Education at The University of Queensland. Her research activities focus on the self-regulatory processes of adolescent behaviour, and child and adolescent behaviour disorders. The research program has been sustained over 10 years and has resulted in original and substantive contributions to the field. The most significant contributions have been the advancement of proactive interventions (Mindfields ) in behaviour change for young people at--risk and the development of a social-cognitive model for predicting at-risk and delinquent behaviours. Also of importance has been the development of psychometrically sound instruments for use in the study of self-regulatory processes. Dr Carroll has conducted numerous large-scale studies and developed a number of reliable and robust instruments. The continued success in attracting external funding (14 competitive grants) is evidence of the quality others attribute to her research. Her publications over the past 10 years are also evidence of sustained research and international recognition in internationally peer reviewed journals.Professor Stephen Houghton's research activities focus on developmental disorders of childhood and adolescence particularly in relation to executive functions, and developmental trajectories to delinquency and the mediating effects of self-regulation. Within the past he has initiated research to examine the construct of child psychopathy and the development of antisocial behaviour. Professor Houghton has extensive knowledge and experience of children with developmental disorders, and disruptive behaviour disorders in both practice and research, and is sought regularly as an expert by the media. Professor Houghton has developed a number of reliable instruments with Associate Professor Carroll and has been successful in attracting externally competitive funding (15 grants) and producing publications in internationally peer reviewed journals. A major aspect of the research conducted by Professor Houghton is its innovative nature in tapping into ecologically valid domains and from this developing new theories and intervention strategies.Kevin Durkin is Professor of Psychology at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge and has taught at universities in the UK and Australia. He is a developmental social psychologist with primary interests in social and communicative development, adolescent problem behaviour, and media use by young people. He has held numerous research grants in these fields, and has published several books and over 120 articles. He serves regularly as a consultant to government and industry bodies concerned with the wellbeing of young people.John Hattie is Professor of Education at Auckland University. His areas of interest are measurement models and their applications to educational problems, including item response models, structural equation modelling, measurement theory, and meta-analysis. Substantive areas include study skills, performance indicators and evaluation, self-concept, models of teaching and learning, and educational psychology. He currently directs the TTle Project (www.asTTle.org.nz), is chief moderator of the Performance Based Research Fund, editor of the International Journal of Testing, an associate editor of the British Journal of Educational Psychology. He has supervised $25m in research grants, published and presented over 450 papers, and supervised 150 theses students.