After age seven or eight, their cases seem intractable. This was the pattern with Butch and Willie. When they were boys, psychiatrists wrote them off. Once an antisocial personality, always an antisocial personality, it was believed at the time. But modern research suggests there are positive alternative treatments.
Early intervention is the key.
What the researchers have found is that parenting is not a natural instinct. If everything works out, you learn it at the feet of masters, your own parents. Inadequate parents, white or black, make children who are more at risk. Fortunately, psychologists have discovered that some of the missing parenting skills can be taught. Parents can be shown how to keep track of where their children are, what they are doing, and with whom they are playing.