ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE IMPLICATIONS FOR DESISTANCE OF THE DEVELOPMENTAL COURSE OF CHILDHOOD AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR

Title of Dissertation: THE IMPLICATIONS FOR DESISTANCE OF THE DEVELOPMENTAL COURSE OF CHILDHOOD AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR Sarah Nicholson Bacon, Doctor of Philosophy, 2006 Dissertation directed by: Professor Hanno Petras, Ph.D. Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice One of the most important goals for criminological research is to further our understanding of the concept of desistance. Challenges in defining and measuring desistance have been exacerbated by the lack of theoretical foundations to guide inquiry and empirical research. To date, only a few predictors have been empirically identified, and all of them are exclusively relevant to adulthood. An important objective for desistance research, then, is to identify factors associated with earlier desistance. This research endeavors to meet this objective by specifying a conceptual model relating the developmental course of early childhood aggression to offending behavior during adolescence and early adulthood. The relationships proposed by the conceptual model are assessed using a longitudinal measure of aggression and analytic techniques designed to assess change in development over time. An additional extension of existing research is the comparison of these relationships for boys and girls. Data come from Johns Hopkins University’s Prevention Intervention Research Center’s school-based interventions trials in Baltimore City Schools. Participants comprise an epidemiologically defined sample of urban, primarily African-American, first grade boys and girls. Results suggest that some pathways to desistance may be identified before adulthood, thus supporting the notion that examinations of early development have utility for informing our understanding of later processes. THE IMPLICATIONS FOR DESISTANCE OF THE DEVELOPMENTAL COURSE OF CHILDHOOD AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR by Sarah Nicholson Bacon Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2006