Introduction

Much adult psychopathology has its roots in childhood difficulties; nowhere is that tendency more apparent than in the antisocial domain. From the time of the first long-term follow-ups (Robins, 1966, 1978) it has been clear that most severely antisocial adults have long histories of disruptive and deviant behaviour reaching back to childhood. Yet these same studies also highlighted an apparent paradox: looking forward from childhood, the picture was a rather different one. Most conduct-disordered children did not grow up to be severely antisocial adults, and for many, discontinuity, rather than continuity, seemed the more usual course.

Identifying the mechanisms that account for these patterns constitutes a central challenge for developmental psychopathology. Which early risks or intervening processes contribute to the long-term persistence of antisocial problems in some individuals, but allow an apparently more benign course in others? Do the majority of antisocial children indeed ‘recover’ before adulthood, or do they too face continuing vulnerabilities, albeit of a less severe or possibly different kind? And can these varying developmental trajectories help us understand the underlying heterogeneity within the population of antisocial children, and so illuminate classifications of childhood disorders?

Conceptual and methodological issues

Heterogeneity

As other chapters in this volume highlight, childhood behaviour problems are far from homogeneous. At one extreme, the majority of young people are involved in occasional illegal acts; at the other, a minority show long-term, persistent difficulties that span not only criminality but also severe dysfunction in a range of life domains (Robins et al., 1991).