A SET of risk factors for criminal behaviour in boys as young as eight has been determined by Prof Donald West, retired professor: emeritus of the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge. He studied 411 boys beginning in 1961, when they were aged eight to 10, until the present. Teachers successfully predicted which boys would be trouble. Among the group, 25 became chronic offenders with 12 convictions or more and of the other 385, one third acquired a criminal record. These boys shared certain risk factors:

. parents' criminal record

. low income

. large family

. inadequate parenting

. below average intelligence

Having just one of these factors doubles the chance of an eight year old becoming a juvenile delinquent. Having any combination of two factors, gives him a high chance of being a chronic offender with repeated convictions in adult life. Half of all chronic offenders are from this vulnerable group.