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The aggregate-level age-crime distributions in Western countries are predominantly right-skewed and adolescent-spiked. Based on Western data, Hirschi and Gottfredson (1983) asserted that this age-crime pattern is universally invariant across time and places. This study's overall goal is to rigorously examine Hirschi and Gottfredson's invariant premise within a non-Western country, focusing on the stability and change in the age-crime patterns of South Korea from 1980 to 2019. Specifically, two research questions are addressed: (1) whether the average age-arrest curves in South Korea diverge from the invariant premise after adjusting for period and cohort effects; (2) how period and cohort effects modify the age-arrest curves. To examine these questions, I applied the age-period-cohort-interaction model (APC-I) to analyze the official age-specific arrest statistics for various offense types from 1980 to 2019 in South Korea. Findings suggested that the age-crime patterns of homicide, assault, and fraud are characterized by spread-out distributions and advanced peak ages. After adjusting for period and cohort effects, most of the age-crime curves are still robustly divergent from the age-crime distributions found in Western countries. Cohort and period effects have modified the age-crime patterns, but arrests in South Korea are largely concentrated among midlife age groups older than 30. These results provide additional compelling evidence contesting Hirschi and Gottfredson's invariance thesis, underscoring the substantial impact of country-specific processes, historical context, and cultural factors on the age-crime relationship., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Yunmei Lu. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This study examines the longitudinal change in the sex gap of homicide victimization in 76 countries between 1975 and 2017. We compiled a cross-national dataset with homicide victimization data from WHO and structural measures from multiple databases. Our findings reveal that countries with low homicide rates and rapid homicide decline are more likely to have narrowing sex gaps, and that the narrowing gaps are mainly driven by male homicide decline. Different from the prior literature, we find null associations between most measures of gender stratification and the sex gap. Instead, results reveal that aging population is associated with a narrowing sex gap. Implications are discussed, including the specific effects of the study period and the shifting dynamics of homicide trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examines the gendered reaction to victimization threats from 1973 to 2016 using the General Social Survey and the hierarchical age-period-cohort-characteristics model. Results suggest the gender gap is narrowing across time with a gradual decline among women who report feeling afraid to walk alone at night. The period-level change in violent crime rates and the cohort differences in gender ideology have significant impact on the gender-specific reaction to the threats of victimization. The macro-level variables explain some variance in the gender gap across time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]