Family interactions of assaultive adolescents, stealers, and nondelinquents.

Eleven adolescent chronic offenders apprehended for assaultive crimes in the community were observed in their family homes. This group was matched with 11 adolescents apprehended for stealing and with 11 adolescents with no court contact. Assaultive adolescents, unlike their controls, ranked significantly higher among their own family members in terms of their total aversive behavior in the family home. The results support the notion that assaultive adolescents are more involved with fighting with their siblings in the family home and consequently have had more practice in fighting than their controls, thereby preparing them for assaultive behavior in the community. Assaultive adolescents had more female siblings than male siblings, whereas nondelinquent adolescents had more male than female siblings.