Individuals diagnosed with ADHD are consistently found to be overrepresented in juvenile detention centres, jails and prisons worldwide (Rosler et al., 2004) And the personality trait or characteristic that has been most consistently related to antisocial behaviour is low self-control or impulsivity. This childhood disease, which many grow out of which age, means individuals are less able to inhibit or control their behaviour …show more content…
Moffitt’s (1993) dual taxonomy theory proposes that the age-crime curve masks the trajectories of two distinct and unique groups of offenders in the population. She argues each follows a distinctly different longitudinal trajectory of criminal behaviour and that explanations for each trajectory are related to the shape of each offending trajectory.
The first trajectory comprises of a small percentage of individuals, who begin offending early in life and consistently across the lifespan, known as life-course persistent offenders (LCP). The other trajectory, encompassing a much larger group of individuals, who initiate their delinquent behaviour in adolescence but desist into early adulthood are known as adolescence-limited offenders (AL) (Moffit, 2002, Steffeinsmeirer, et al, 1989; Blonigen 2010; Greenberg, D. 2006).
Life-course persistent offenders, who account for roughly 4-9% of the population, begin offending early in life and persistently engage in criminal anti-social activities over the duration of the life course (Greenberg, 2006). Moffitt contends that the causal factors for LCPs antisocial behaviours stem from early childhood and neuropsychological deficiencies as a result of a child’s disadvantaged position in a typically criminogenic environment. (Moffitt,