Like any other study, this study has some limitations. First, the CPS record investigation in the current study was not performed using a validated instrument, because an applicable instrument was not available. However, CPS investigations are standardized and in order to optimize and monitor the quality of the data, inter-rater reliability was analysed and found to be substantial. Second, registered offence data, and in particular data on the first offence, is likely to be under reported, as a minority of juvenile delinquents is actually convicted . Still, in this sample officially recorded and self-reported delinquency data are, while not exactly similar, quite comparable, both showing a high prevalence of delinquent behaviour. Third, in this study, self-report questionnaires were also used to investigate socio-demographic characteristics and psychological functioning. To achieve good reliability, a validated self-report psychological functioning questionnaire is used and anonymity and privacy of participants was emphasized before and during the assessment of questionnaires. Fourth, a majority of 87.4% of participants in this study have a non-Dutch ethnicity. In our case, non-Dutch ethnicity refers to an amalgam of cultural backgrounds, for example Surinamese, Antillean, Moroccan and Turkish. However, due to small sample sizes per ethnic subgroup, it was not possible to perform separate analyses. Fifth, generalizability of study results to an international context is not straightforward, because of different service system organizations. In Great-Britain and the United States of America, for example, child protection service and the judicial youth system are more separate systems than in The Netherlands [93, 94]. Scandinavian countries have more comparable systems to the Dutch system, although those systems are more based on prevention. For instance, in Sweden voluntary and involuntary services are not divided as in The Netherlands . And lastly, LCA is an exploratory data-driven method and the findings per class represent probabilities on latent indicators.