Developmental theory of crime

In 1993, American psychologist Terrie Moffitt described a dual taxonomy of offending behavior in an attempt to explain the developmental processes that lead to the distinctive shape of the age crime curve.

[3] This theory is used with respect to antisocial behavior instead of crime due to the differing definitions of 'crime' among cultures.

Biting and hitting as early as age 4 followed by crimes such as shoplifting, selling drugs, theft, robbery, rape, and child abuse characterize a life course persistent offender.

[5] Donker et al. presents a test concerning the prediction on the stability of longitudinal antisocial behavior.

Their delinquent behavior is attributed to several factors including neuropsychological impairments and negative environmental features.

Moffitt predicts that "…estimates of the individual stability of antisocial behavior are expected to violate the longitudinal law, which states that relationships between variables become weaker as the time interval between them grows longer.

Many that are cited include abuse, neglect, socioeconomic status, parental antisocial behavior, etc.

In one such study, the highest criminal activity levels were witnessed in individuals whose foster families exhibited deviant behavior.

[5] Although the biological risk factor do not apply to this group, one point worth noting is that the myelination of the frontal cortex continues into our 20's.

[8] This continuing development may help to explain why antisocial behavior ceases after adolescence and why such a spike in crime exists there in the first place.

Would it even be ethical to use brain scans or other screening methods to preemptively test children in the first place?

Assuming that the data was so reliable that there was no chance a child tested to be a life-course-persistent offender could change course throughout his/her life due to social or environmental factors, what would we do with those children?

What if, in the future, we could identify the people who had an intact moral compass, but were biologically engineered to exhibit antisocial behavior?