Biosocial Risk Factors and Juvenile Violence

The author outlines the role that biological factors may play in the prediction of juvenile violence, including early life risk factors such as perinatal complications, recent work on brain functioning, and violence. Physiological functioning and responsiveness to stress are considered as possible predictors of violent behavior in two different types of juvenile offenders those whose behavior occurs in response to provocation and those who appear to be relatively unresponsive to stress and threats in the environment.