Juvenile delinquency, including violence, is increasing, but homicide committed by children remains rare. While the acts and features of children who kill are heterogeneous, all these children are seriously disturbed, with high rates of neuropsycho-logical abnormalities, poor impulse control, school failure, and truancy. All have experienced severe family adversities: domestic violence, neglect, child abuse, substance misuse, maternal depression, and absence of fathers. Because homicide by children is so rare, population approaches to prevention are not realistic.' But the evidence, though limited, is that with good care and psychiatric treatment the children do well and do not reoffend in later life. This fact should govern the way that they are treated by the criminal justice system.
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