Neuropsychological functioning and its association with juvenile arrest and adulthood incarceration: Findings from a longitudinal sample of youth

There has been a great deal of interest in understanding the role that individual differences play in the development of juvenile delinquency and adult criminal behavior. One trait that has received some attention is neuropsychological functioning. The current study expanded on this research by examining whether adolescent neuropsychological functioning was associated with being arrested as a juvenile and being incarcerated as an adult. To do so, data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were analyzed. The results of the models, that included controls for key criminogenic influences, revealed that neuropsychological functioning was associated with the odds of being arrested as a juvenile under some statistical conditions and with being incarcerated as an adult. Moreover, neuropsychological functioning was also associated with being incarcerated as an adult among those participants who had been arrested as a juvenile. Given the robustness of the connection between neuropsychological functioning and these criminal outcomes, we conclude by discussing the importance of criminological research more fully exploring the criminogenic influence of neuropsychological functioning across the entire life course.