Lessons learned and yet to be learned from predictors of youth crime research

Literature on predictors of youth crime is of special value to many fields. By examining the factors that predict youth offending behavior, this literature helps better understand appropriate prevention and intervention methods. These methods target specific predictive factors that increase the likelihood that youth offending behavior will initiate, persist, and/or escalate. Accordingly, this paper presents a review of literature on predictors of youth crime spanning over 80 years. Therein, this review starts by comparing two periods of literature: (research produced between 1940 and 2000) and (research produced between 2001 and 2024). These sections reveal a divide in major socio-political events and shifts to within standard approaches to research, and in doing so, these framings offer a more nuanced understanding of predictors of youth crime throughout the years. Following, this paper provides a critical discussion of theoretical gaps, unanswered research questions, variable re-considerations, and methodological shortcomings of this literature. This critical discussion yields that while research has been produced on a variety of predictors of youth crime, some cause-and-effect relationships, along with contextual relationships, and the role of modern technologies remain largely misunderstood.