This study compares childhood explanatory factors for adolescent offending according to official records obtained in three longitudinal projects conducted in three different countries: the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, the Pittsburgh Youth Study, and the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood. This is the first comparison of a great variety of explanatory factors for recorded offending measured in three different geographic areas and different generations. Several common explanatory factors were found in the three projects, and they seem to be generalizable across time and context. Common explanatory factors for offending included individual factors such as high impulsivity, attention deficit, and low school achievement. Childrearing explanatory factors included poor supervision, physical discipline, and parental conflict. Socioeconomic explanatory factors included low family income and divorced parents. Parental imprisonment was also a common risk factor among the three studies. Replicable childhood predictors of youth offending should be targeted in prevention.

本研究根据在三个不同国家进行的三个纵向项目中获得的官方记录，比较了青少年犯罪的童年解释因素：剑桥犯罪研究、匹兹堡青年研究和苏黎世从儿童到成年社会发展的项目。这是对在三个不同地理区域和不同世代测量的记录犯罪的各种解释因素的首次比较。在这三个项目中发现了几个常见的解释因素，它们似乎可以跨时间和上下文进行概括。犯罪的常见解释因素包括个人因素，例如高冲动性、注意力缺陷和学业成绩低。育儿的解释因素包括监督不力、身体纪律、和父母的冲突。社会经济解释因素包括家庭收入低和父母离异。在这三项研究中，父母监禁也是一个常见的风险因素。预防青少年犯罪的可复制的儿童期预测因素应成为预防目标。