Caught in the Act: The impact of Impulsivity and Risk Taking on Crime Categories among Children in conflict with the Law

This study investigates the role of impulsivity and risk-taking in differentiating among categories of crimes—petty, serious, and heinous. Data was collected using Impulsiveness Scale and Risk-Taking Inventory from a total of 150 male children in conflict with the law residing in observation homes. The Kruskal-Wallis Test indicated a significant difference in impulsivity across crime categories with post hoc comparisons confirming significant differences between serious and both heinous and petty. A similar trend was found for risk-taking, with significant differences between serious and petty and between heinous and petty crimes. Ordinal logistic regression revealed impulsivity and risk-taking as significant predictors of crime category. Nominal logistic regression further demonstrated that high impulsivity significantly increased the odds of being classified into heinous and petty crimes compared to serious crimes. Similar trends were observed for Risk-taking. Several other significant predictors were found significant included Sexual activity, negative peer influence, major injuries, repeat offending and type of family. These findings suggest that impulsivity and risk-taking are critical psychological dimensions in criminal behavior and should be integrated into risk assessment and intervention strategies. The role of social and demographic factors further emphasizes the need for holistic crime prevention programs.