Pathways to violent and non-violent criminality in an adolescent psychiatric population

In a Norwegian follow-up study of former adolescent psychiatric in-patients 222 patients who had committed violent crimes were compared to 287 patients who had committed non-violent crimes only. There were numerous significant differences between the criminal careers of violent and non-violent criminals. Individuals with a history of violent criminality only were uncommon and uncharacteristic of violent criminals in general. Regression analyses identified several strong and independent correlates of violent criminality. The study supported a division of antisocial behavior into violent and non-violent sub-groups, thus paralleling a concept of overt and covert pathways to delinquent behavior. The overt pathway seemed to be imbedded in the covert pathway.