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Society's efforts to deter crime with punishment may be ineffective because those individuals most prone to commit crime often act impulsively, with little thought for the future, and so they may be unmoved by the threat of later punishment. Deterrence messages they receive, therefore, may fall on deaf ears. This article examines this issue by testing the relationship between criminal propensity, perceived risks and costs of punishment, and criminal behavior. The authors analyzed data from the Dunedin (New Zealand) Study, a longitudinal study of individuals from birth through age 26 (N = 1,002). They found that in fact, deterrence perceptions had their greatest impact on criminally prone study members. Keywords: deterrence theory; criminal propensity

Researchers have hypothesized that over the life course, criminal offending varies with problems in other domains, including life failure and physical and mental health. To examine this issue, the authors use data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, a prospective longitudinal survey of 411 South London males first studied at age 8 in 1961. Developmental trajectories of criminal activity were defined on the basis of conviction records through age 40, and these were used to predict self-report measures of life failure at age 48 obtained during personal interviews. Results indicate that offending in the first 40 years of life relates to life failure, that childhood risk factors are also implicated in adult life outcomes, and that differences emerge in how offender trajectories predict life failure after controlling for individual and environmental risk factors. This is the first longitudinal investigation to show that chronic offending is associated with life failure into the late 40s, an age period not previously reported, and it also shows that different offending trajectories have different outcomes in late middle age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have explained the transition from criminal propensity in youth to criminal behavior in adulthood with hypotheses of enduring criminal propensity, unique social causation, and cumulative social disadvantage. In this article we develop an additional hypothesis derived from the life-course concept of interdependence: The effects of social ties on crime vary as a function of individuals' propsensity for crime. We tested these four hypotheses with data from the Dunedin Study. In support of life-course interdependence, prosocial ties, such as education, employment, family ties, and partnerships, deterred crime, and antisocial ties, such as delinquent peers, promoted crime, most strongly among low self-control individuals. Our findings bear implications for theories and policies of crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study of the relationship between low self-control and the four dimensions of criminal careers which include participation, frequency, persistence and desistance from crime. It investigates whether self-control differentiates between persistence and desistance. Based on data from 985 participants, the authors found that low self-control equally predicts all dimensions of criminal behavior and that its effects hold study across all types of individual.

The degree to which the propensity to commit violence is distinct from the propensity to commit other nonviolent acts informs theory, research, and practice. This research examines whether there are individuals who tend to specialize in violent versus nonviolent crimes and whether these individuals differ from one another on other measures. Building off prior research, a distributional approach to specialization that examines offenses within individuals' careers was applied to both self-reported and official crime data from a large birth cohort from Dunedin, New Zealand. Whereas analyses of official reports were consistent with previous research in documenting little specialization, analyses using self-reports indicated that individuals differed in their propensities to commit violent crime. Further, individuals with some violent crimes in their offense distribution differ from those with no violent crimes in terms of previous histories of behavior problems and personality. Implications for current theory and future directions are discussed.

Both partner abuse and general crime violate the rights and safety of victims. But are these phenomena the same or are they distinct, demanding their own research and intervention specialties? Are persons who abuse their partners the same people who commit other criminal behavior? Do partner abuse and general crime share the same correlates? We investigated these questions in a birth cohort of over 800 young adults, by testing whether a personality model known to predict general crime would also predict partner abuse. Personality data were gathered at age 18, and self-reported partner abuse and general criminal offending were measured at age 21. Results from modeling latent constructs showed that partner abuse and general crime represent different constructs that are moderately related; they are not merely two expressions of the same underlying antisocial propensity. Group comparisons showed many, but not all, partner abusers also engaged in violence against nonintimates. Personality analyses showed that partner abuse and general crime shared a strong propensity from a trait called Negative Emotionality. However, crime was related to weak Constraint (low self-control), but partner abuse was not. All findings applied to women as well as to men, suggesting that women's partner abuse may motivated by the same intra-personal features that motivate men's abuse. The results are consistent with theoretical and applied arguments about the "uniqueness" of partner violence relative to other crime and violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a theoretical model that emphasises the distinction between individual and contextual determinants of antisocial behaviour, the current study examined whether school attendance throughout adolescence acted as a protective factor for individuals at risk for criminal behaviour in early adulthood. Specifically, Lack of Control, an index of self-regulation which has previously been shown to predict later criminal behaviour, was expected to interact with early school leaving to predict self-reports and official records of criminal behaviour collected at age 21. Multivariate regression analyses revealed a significant three-way interaction between school attendance, self-regulation, and sex. Among males, after controlling for the effects of socioeconomic status and IQ, the main effects for Lack of Control and school attendance were found to be significant; additionally, the interaction between Lack of Control and school attendance was significant, indicating that the strength of the relation between Lack of Control and criminal outcomes was moderated by school attendance. The main effects for Lack of Control and school attendance were significant for females, but the interaction between Lack of Control and school attendance was not significant. The protective effect of school attendance among males could not be accounted for by differences in familial disruption or adolescent delinquency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the social-selection and social-causation processes that generate criminal behavior. We describe these processes with three theoretical models: a social-causation model that links crime to contemporaneous social relationships; a social-selection model that links crime to personal characteristics formed in childhood; and a mixed selection-causation model that links crime to social relationships and childhood characteristics. We tested these models with a longitudinal study in Dunedin, New Zealand, of individuals followed from birth through age 21. We analyzed measures of childhood and adolescent low self-control as well as adolescent and adult social bonds and criminal behavior. In support of social selection, we found that low self-control in childhood predicted disrupted social bonds and criminal offending later in life. In support of social causation, we found that social bonds and adolescent delinquency predicted later adult crime and, further, that the effect of self-control on crime was largely mediated by social bonds. In support of both selection and causation, we found that the social-causation effects remained significant even when controlling for preexisting levels of self-control, but that their effects diminished. Taken together, these findings support theoretical models that incorporate social-selection and social-causation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many theories of crime have linked low levels of socioeconomic status (SES) to high levels of delinquency. However, empirical studies have consistently found weak or nonexistent correlations between individuals' SES and their self-reported delinquent behavior. Drawing upon recent theoretical innovations (Hagan et al., 1985; Jensen, 1993; Tittle, 1995), we propose that this apparent contradiction between theory and data may be reconciled by recognizing that SES has both a negative and a positive indirect effect upon delinquency that, in tandem, results in little overall correlation between the two. We tested this proposal with longitudinal data from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. We used measures of parental SES recorded at study members' birth through age 15, social-psychological characteristics at age 18, and self-reported delinquency at ages 18 and 21. We found that low SES promoted delinquency by increasing individuals' alienation, financial strain, and aggression and by decreasing educational and occupational aspirations, whereas high SES promoted individuals' delinquency by increasing risk taking and social power and by decreasing conventional values. These findings suggest a reconciliation between theory and data, and they underscore the conceptual importance of elucidating the full range of causal linkages between SES and delinquency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the association between mental health problems and criminal behavior among adolescents in Sweden. Community crime prevention in a Swedish context is also discussed. Every two years, pupils from schools in Stockholm answer the Stockholm School Survey with questions and statements about their social situation, alcohol and drug use, attitudes, school climate, school grades and criminal behavior. Data collected from pupils who answered the survey in 2014, 2018 and 2020 form the basis of this study. A significant association between mental health problems and criminal behavior was shown, even after controlling for factors suggested in international literature. Mental health problems were shown to be a strong explanation for criminal behavior among adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aims to parse out the effects of childhood head injury (HI) as an acquired neuropsychological deficit that impacts adolescent delinquent behavior, while accounting for other early-life risk factors and potential temporal ordering. Methods: Nationally representative prospective data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS; N = 13,287) and a series of logistic and binomial regressions are used to examine the relationship between early-life risk factors, HI, and adolescent delinquent behavior. Methodological considerations from clinical HI research, such as the use of an orthopedic injury comparison group, are incorporated. Results: Findings are consistent with the conceptualization of HI as an acquired neuropsychological deficit, in that childhood HI increases the risk of early- and adolescent-onset delinquency, sustained delinquent behavior from childhood to early adolescence, and participation in a greater variety of delinquent behavior. Conclusions: Childhood HI is relatively common, as over 27% of the sample reported at least one HI. The importance of HI as an acquired neuropsychological deficit and its relevance as a risk factor for later criminal behavior is reiterated. Future research should examine the importance of developmental period effects and mechanisms underlying this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using prospective data from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study birth cohort, the authors found that adolescents with low self-esteem had poorer mental and physical health, worse economic prospects, and higher levels of criminal behavior during adulthood, compared with adolescents with high self-esteem. The long-term consequences of self-esteem could not be explained by adolescent depression, gender, or socioeconomic status. Moreover, the findings held when the outcome variables were assessed using objective measures and informant reports; therefore, the findings cannot be explained by shared method variance in self-report data. The findings suggest that low self-esteem during adolescence predicts negative real-world consequences during adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early behavior problems may correlate with adult offending. However, the relationship between early problem behavior and lifetime arrests among known offenders has received little empirical examination. In addition, few studies have explored how the associations between early problem behavior and lifetime arrests may differ among Whites and Nonwhites. It is crucial to understand how early problem behavior is associated with lifetime offending given the growing number of interventions targeting early problem behavior that has the promise to interrupt criminal careers. This study begins to explore the relationship between early problem behavior and lifetime arrests using a sample of men and women who were recently incarcerated in New Jersey. Findings suggest that early problem behavior and the usage of various drugs impact lifetime arrests; however, these factors differ between Whites and Nonwhites. Policy implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores individual characteristics linked to an increased risk of persistence in collective violence. A sample of collective violence offenders (n = 438) was identified based on individuals' involvement in a collective violence incident in 2011/2012 or due to them being recorded in a police database of 'known' football hooligans. For the current analyses, persistence was defined as recidivism to collective violence assessed over a 4- to 5-year time span. Criminal career data were obtained from the police (register data). Individual characteristics concerned criminal career measures, behavioral indicators of personality traits and childhood problematic behavior. Due to a lack of other available data sources, behavioral indicator data were largely obtained from police and probation service information. The results of this study indicate that offender characteristics can be linked to persistence in collective violence. Results contrast currently dominant theoretical perspectives on the etiology of collective violence. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited attention has been paid to studying intermittency (i.e., gaps in offending) in the criminal career. Data obtained through in-depth interviews with a sample of 16 formerly incarcerated men, were used to explore the impact of personal relationships on intermittency. Life history narratives were analyzed within a social control framework to further our understanding of how personal relationships influence offenders' decisions to take breaks from offending. The research also examined how personal relationships impact decisions to return to offending. The findings suggest that relationships with significant others, children and parents impacted the cessation of and the return to criminal behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his Presidential Address to the American Society of Criminology, Agnew proposed a new theory of crime causation referring to the key independent variable as "social concern." Social concern theory highlights the nuanced association between self-interest, altruistic behavior, and criminal behavior. Although there is considerable indirect evidence to support the theory—indeed, it is an example of inductive theory construction—there have been few direct tests of Agnew's statements. As a result, the current study represents one of the first tests of social concern theory by examining the direct relationship between social concern and criminal behavior. We also test whether social concern mediates the effect of sex on criminal behavior, thereby offering insight into the gender gap in offending. Drawing on data from a nationally representative sample of American adults, we perform exploratory factor analysis to construct a measure of social concern. Results from negative binominal regression models reveal that social concern is negatively associated with criminal behavior even after controlling for a host of potential confounders. Additionally, findings indicate a portion of the gender gap in criminal offending may be attributable to females' (generally) higher levels of social concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including prison sanctions and recidivism; and field of inmate custody classification.

Crimes committed by college students have recently revealed some disturbing forms of misconduct. We know little however, about the sustained criminal behavior of this group in the decades following college. This study assesses whether being arrested while attending college is associated with an adult criminal conviction, 14-17 years following the college years. Data included a matched sample of non-arrested college students during the years 1996-1999, matched by gender, year in school, and college affiliation. The findings reveal that postcollege conviction odds increase between 3.3 and 5.4 times if a student has been arrested while attending college. Dropping out of college is associated with an increase in the odds of later criminal conviction, but dropping out does not have multiplicative effects on arrest status in college and later criminal conviction. Being a first year student moderates the association between arrest status and criminal conviction following college. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of the development of anti-social behavior from adolescence through adulthood have suggested that early onset of offending tends to be associated with a lengthier criminal career. Recently, Bacon and colleagues uncovered a somewhat divergent finding in that late onset of delinquency was associated with subsequent offending among members of the 1958 Philadelphia Birth Cohort. This paper furthers this line of research by adopting a different methodological orientation, a finite mixture-modeling framework, to the 1958 Cohort data. Findings suggest that late adolescence onset of delinquency is associated with more offending in adulthood. Direction for future research is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, we advance the idea that getting arrested amounts to “failing at crime.” And akin to the notion of the generality of deviance—where those who engage in any given form of criminal behavior are also likely to engage in a wide array of other problematic behaviors—we examine whether failing at crime (getting arrested) is associated with other forms of life failure. Using data from multiple waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, our results reveal that, independent of one’s level of self-reported criminal behavior and other key potential confounders (IQ and self-control), being arrested is a significant predictor of a host of life failures related to education, employment, relationships, and health. The key implication of our study is that it highlights the need to develop a theory of the “generality of failure.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The tragic events in Aurora, CO and Newtown, CT have renewed public perception of mentally persons as 'dangerous' and 'criminal.' Unfortunately, this perception is based more on conjecture and fear than research. The following essay takes stock of the empirical research on mental illness and criminal behavior. Three noteworthy trends emerge from this literature. First, the prevalence of mental illness is substantially higher among individuals who have come in contact with the criminal justice system relative to the general population. Second, individuals with psychotic and externalizing behavioral disorders, particularly those who also abuse drugs and alcohol, tend to engage in higher levels of violence than individuals with other forms of mental illness. Third, mental illness does not determine whether someone will break the law; rather, it is but one of many criminogenic risk factors that interact in complex ways to influence individual behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented about an article on the issues surrounding the adult criminal justice system in the U.S., by Farrington and colleagues, published within the issue. Farrington and colleagues argued that the criminal behavior or activity of youth increased the costs to individuals and society. They added that the justice system approach to youthful offenders is misaligned, and pondered on the proposed increase in adult court referral from 18 to 24.

The extent to which social bonds and turning points influence criminal activity has been the focus of much empirical research. However, there have been few empirical studies exploring social bonds and turning points and offending for those who have experienced emerging adulthood, a recently identified stage of the life course. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health we examined if indicators of social bonds and turning points were predictors of criminal offending. Several of the turning points and social bonds included in these analyses were found to influence decreases in criminal offending for a cohort of emerging adults. We extend previous research by examining the influence of social bonds and turning points on patterns of criminal offending during emerging adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

More than twenty years ago, Albert Reiss (1988) recognized that some individuals are responsible for instigating group offending, whereas others follow accomplices into crime (or offend alone). Since this initial discussion by Reiss, however, little clarity has emerged regarding the factors that predict or explain the instigation of co-offending. Specifically, some literature has suggested that the tendency to instigate varies systematically across individuals, such that chronic or serious offenders are more likely to instigate group crime. Instigation also may vary across crime types (i.e., within-individuals), according to whether individuals have crime-specific skill or experience. Using data from inmates in the Colorado Department of Corrections to investigate these hypotheses, the results reveal that individuals with earlier ages of criminal onset are more likely to report they instigate group crime, net of controls. At the same time, indicators of crime-specific expertise predict the tendency to instigate group crime. The Discussion section considers the implications of these results and offers directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over a half century, criminology has been dominated by a paradigm-adolescence-limited criminology (ALC)-that has privileged the use of self-report surveys of adolescents to test sociological theories of criminal behavior and has embraced the view that 'nothing works' to control crime. Although ALC has created knowledge, opposed injustice, and advanced scholars' careers, it has outlived its utility. The time has come for criminologists to choose a different future. Thus, a new paradigm is needed that is rooted in life-course criminology, brings criminologists closer to offenders and to the crime event, prioritizes the organization of knowledge, and produces scientific knowledge that is capable of improving offenders' lives and reducing crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although informal social reactions to crime are key to many criminological theories, we know little about how readily offenders' significant others reject and withdraw support from them. I explore the limits of others' willingness to help offenders by studying parents' financial assistance of grown offending and nonoffending offspring. I use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and from the 1997 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to show that, despite their strained relationships with their parents, young adult offenders receive more parental assistance than do their nonoffending peers and even their own nonoffending siblings. This is not because offenders have fewer financial resources, but it is partly because they tend to have a variety of other life circumstances that trigger parental assistance. I suggest that parents' reactions to offending offspring are limited by role obligations and norms of familial duty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a vast line of literature showing that antisocial behaviors and personality traits are transmitted across generational lines. Given the ascendancy of Gottfredson and Hirschi's general theory of crime, it is somewhat surprising that no research has examined whether levels of self-control are passed from parent to child. The authors examine this possibility by analyzing data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. The results of the analysis revealed that maternal levels of self-control and paternal levels of self-control were predictive of the child's levels of self-control. Supplemental analysis revealed that these effects were not mediated by key criminogenic risk factors. Moreover , there was also evidence indicating that people mate assortatively on a range of antisocial characteristics, including low self-control. Implications of the study are noted and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used data from a survey of inmates who have committed homicide or assault to examine whether men and women who have killed or assaulted their intimate partners are different from other violent offenders. A “gender perspective” implies that intimate partner violence and violence between the sexes have different etiologies than other types of violence, whereas a “violence perspective” implies that they have similar etiologies. Our evidence supports a violence perspective. In general, offenders who attack their partners are similar to other offenders in terms of their prior records, alcohol and drug use, and experiences of abuse. We observed some differences between men who attack women (including their female partners) and other male offenders, but the differences were opposite those predicted by a gender perspective. For example, men who attacked their partners were particularly likely to have been abused by their partners. In addition, men who attacked women were particularly likely to have experienced sexual abuse during childhood and to have been intoxicated at the time of the incident. These results suggest that some well-known predictors of violence are particularly strong predictors of male violence against women and female partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distinguishing trajectories of criminal offending over the life course, especially the prediction of high-rate offenders, has received considerable attention over the past two decades. Motivated by a recent study by Sampson and Laub (2003), this study uses longitudinal data on conviction histories from the Dutch Criminal Career and Life-Course Study (CCLS) to examine whether adolescent risk factors predict offending trajectories across the life span. The CCLS is particularly well suited to study developmental offending trajectories as it contains detailed information on individual criminal offending careers for a representative sample of all individuals convicted in the Netherlands in 1977 (n = 4,615) beginning at 12 years of age and continuing into late adulthood. To assess predictive ability, the authors employ two different analytical approaches. First, the authors examine whether offending trajectories can be prospectively differentiated by risk factors identified in adolescence. Second, the authors use group-based trajectory analysis to retrospectively identify distinct developmental offending trajectories and employ a crossvalidation technique to examine the ability to predict the probability of an individual's membership in a particular trajectory group. Overall, the results support the notion that it is difficult to predict long-term patterns of criminal offending using risk factors identified early in the life course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several researchers point to the anticipation of early death, or a sense of “futurelessness,” as a contributing factor to youth crime. It is argued that young people who perceive a high probability of early death may have little reason to delay gratification for the promise of future benefits, as the future itself is discounted. Consequently, these young people tend to pursue high-risk behaviors associated with immediate rewards, which include crime and violence. Although existing studies lend support to these arguments and show a statistical relationship between anticipated early death and youth crime, this support remains tentative. Moreover, several questions remain regarding the interpretation of this relationship, the meanings that offenders attach to the prospect of early death, and the cognitive processes that link anticipated early death to youth crime. In this article, we address the limitations of previous studies using a multimethods approach, which involves the analyses of national survey data and in-depth interviews with active street offenders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examine the offending trajectories of Aboriginal youths under a probation sentence in Manitoba, Canada, and compared them to those of non-Aboriginal juvenile probationers. The results from growth-mixture analyses indicated that, for both sub-samples, a two-group latent trajectory model best represented the shape of the developmental progression in criminal behaviour from early adolescence to middle adulthood. While a small proportion of the offenders showed serious and persistent offending behaviour over their life-course, the majority of the juvenile probationers engaged in relatively less frequent and/or serious criminal activity over time. The size of the chronic high-offending trajectory group was slightly larger among the Aboriginal offenders (18.7%) than among the non-Aboriginal offenders (12.3%). Additional analyses revealed that the Aboriginal offenders were more likely to come from an impoverished background, characterized by an unstable familial environment, substance use, and negative peer associations. These criminogenic risk/needs contributed to their serious and persistent pattern of criminality. In contrast, accommodation problems predicted increased odds of membership in the chronic high group of the non-Aboriginal offenders. The article concludes with a discussion of potential implications and suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary Over the past two decades, researchers have been increasingly interested in measuring the risk of offender recidivism as a means of advancing public safety and of directing treatment interventions. In this context, one instrument widely used in assessing offenders is the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R). Recently, however, the LSI-R has been criticized for being a male-specific assessment instrument that is a weak predictor of criminal behavior in females. Through the use of meta-analytic techniques, we assessed this assertion. A total of 27 effect sizes yielded an average r value of .35 ([confidence interval] CI = .34 to .36) for the relationship of the LSI-R with recidivism for female offenders ( N= 14,737). When available, we also made within-sample comparisons based on gender. These comparisons produced effect sizes for males and females that were statistically similar. Policy Implications These results are consistent with those generated in previous research on the LSI-R. They call into question prevailing critiques that the LSI-R has predictive validity for male but not for female offenders. At this stage, it seems that corrections officials should be advised that the LSI-R remains an important instrument for assessing all offenders as a prelude to the delivery of treatment services, especially those based on the principles of effective intervention. Critics should be encouraged, however, to construct and validate through research additional gender-specific instruments that revise, if not rival, the LSI-R. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The life histories of drug dealers suggest that victimizations sometimes mark turning points toward the end of criminal careers, which is a criminologically important but neglected empirical connection that we label the “victimization–termination link.” We theorize this link thusly: When serious victimizations occur in the context of crime, a break from the customary provides an opportune situation for adaptation, and when victims have social bonds and agency, when they define the event as the result of their own criminal involvement, and when they find other adaptations unattractive, criminal-victims are likely to adapt by terminating crime. We illustrate this desistance process with qualitative data obtained through interviews with young, middle-class drug dealers. We conclude by exploring promising avenues for future work. It takes only a minute to change one's whole life course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminological research has established that the vast majority of young people engage in some level of delinquency and drug use during the period of adolescence. Thus young people who completely refrain from delinquency and drug use are atypical and, as such, are deserving of scientific scrutiny. Perhaps because they have been impressed by the statistical abnormality of delinquency abstention, some researchers have explained this behavior in terms of the characterological abnormality of abstainers, arguing that abstention may be less the result of positive characteristics (such as strong moral beliefs) than the result of pathological traits that serve to isolate abstainers from their peers. In this study, data from a large survey of adolescents are used to help assess the respective roles of moral beliefs and peer isolation in delinquency abstention. The findings challenge certain previous interpretations of delinquency abstention and shed additional light on the forces that help to sustain adolescent conformity. The findings also raise intriguing questions about the stigma attached to delinquency abstainers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has consistently indicated that most offenders demonstrate diversity over the life course. Even so, recent work suggests that offenders tend to illustrate specialization in the short-term, though this specialization diminishes as the "time window" for examining an offending career increases. To examine why this pattern emerges, the authors investigate the extent to which opportunity structures, as defined by local life circumstances, predict offense specialization/diversity relative to individuals' enduring propensities to offend. The results suggest that both individual-level propensity, as well as changes in local life circumstances (e.g., employment, marriage, drug and alcohol use), impact patterns of offense specialization/versatility in the short term. The implications of these results lot life-course theories of crime, with a particular focus on integrating opportunity and propensity models of criminal behavior, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent criminological research has explored the extent to which stable propensity and life-course perspectives may be integrated to provide a more comprehensive explanation of variation in individual criminal offending. One line of these integrative efforts focuses on the ways that stable individual characteristics may interact with, or modify, the effects of life-course varying social factors. Given their consistency with the long-standing view that person–environment interactions contribute to variation in human social behavior, these theoretical integration attempts have great intuitive appeal. However, a review of past criminological research suggests that conceptual and empirical complexities have, so far, somewhat dampened the development of a coherent theoretical understanding of the nature of interaction effects between stable individual antisocial propensity and time-varying social variables. In this study, we outline and empirically assess several of the sometimes conflicting hypotheses regarding the ways that antisocial propensity moderates the influence of time-varying social factors on delinquent offending. Unlike some prior studies, however, we explicitly measure the interactive effects of stable antisocial propensity and time-varying measures of selected social variables on changes in delinquent offending. In addition, drawing on recent research that suggests that the relative ubiquity of interaction effects in past studies may be partly from the poorly suited application of linear statistical models to delinquency data, we alternatively test our interaction hypotheses using least-squares and tobit estimation frameworks. Our findings suggest that method of estimation matters, with interaction effects appearing readily in the former but not in the latter. The implications of these findings for future conceptual and empirical work on stable propensity/time-varying social variable interaction effects are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general aim of this article is to evaluate the consequences of both delinquent behavior and institutionalization as a juvenile delinquent on the quality of adult functioning and well-being, with a specific focus on gender differences. Data were gathered from two related data sources: a sample of previously institutionalized offenders ( n= 210) and a sample of individuals living in private households ( n= 721). Males and females in both samples were interviewed initially in 1982 when they were adolescents and re-interviewed in their late twenties. Results showed that having been institutionalized as an adolescent seriously compromises multiple life domains in adulthood, especially for females. The data also show that an official delinquent status and a high level of involvement in delinquency during adolescence each has independent consequences for male and female adult functioning and well-being. Institutionalization is strongly predictive of precarious, premature, unstable, and unsatisfied conditions in multiple life domains but much less predictive of behavioral outcomes. On the other hand, a high level of delinquency involvement in adolescence is predictive of antisocial behavior in adulthood, but it tends to have no direct effects on adversity in other life domains. These results are mostly invariant across gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues of safety and screening for potential violence are particularly salient in community correctional settings. These contexts require a risk assessment mechanism that can both classify offenders according to their risk of violent recidivism and be administered quickly and effectively by nonclinicians. Existing assessment instruments such as the LSI-R, PCL-R-2, VRAG, and HCR-20 are of limited utility in relation to predicting violence in community corrections. This research describes the creation and validation of the Violence Risk Screening Instrument that better meets the requirements of community corrections. Violent recidivism among men was best predicted by a three-item instrument consisting of Severe Violence, Domestic Violence, and Unstable Lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although social-learning theory remains among the dominant perspectives in micro-level research concerning the causes of delinquency, research has yet to provide an adequate test of its social-reinforcement component using the methods required by the logic of operant psychology. The present article discusses the limits of existing attempts to test the social-reinforcement hypothesis, offers a new approach for testing it, and describes the use of panel data to provide such a test. In particular, the author examined (1) whether delinquency increases the amount of time a perpetrator's peers choose to spend with him or her, (2) whether such attention serves as a direct reinforcement prompting further delinquency from the perpetrator, and (3) whether such attention serves as a vicarious reinforcement prompting delinquency from audience members in proportion to their desire for informal socializing among peers. The results suggest support for vicarious, but not direct, social reinforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to a devastating critique of the state of criminology known as the Michael-Adler Report, Edwin H. Sutherland created differential association theory as a paradigm for the field of criminology. I contend that Sutherland's strategy was flawed because he embraced a sociological model of crime and in doing so adopted a form of sociological positivism. Furthermore, Sutherland ignored key facts about crime that were contrary to his theoretical predilections. Recognizing that facts must come first and that criminology is an interdisciplinary field of study, I offer life-course criminology as a paradigm for understanding the causes and dynamics of crime. In addition, I identify three warning signs that I believe inhibit the advancement of criminology as a science and a serious intellectual enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very few studies have explored residual career length (RCL) and residual number of offenses (RNO), that is, the remaining time and number of offenses in criminal careers. This study uses conviction data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development to investigate RCL and RNO, for a sample of British males and their fathers. The sons were followed up to age 40 and the fathers up to age 70. Distributions of RCL and RNO according to six different criteria are presented (age on offense, conviction number, time since the last conviction, age of onset, offense type, and number of co-offenders). There was a general decline in RCL and RNO with age. Although RCL declined steadily with each successive conviction for both Sons and fathers, RNO did not decline with conviction number for fathers. Over and above age on conviction, age of onset predicted RCL and RNO for sons, but less so for fathers. The type of offense and the number of co-offenders did not predict RCL or RNO. Risk scores showed that the predictive power of these variables for RCL and RNO was statistically significant but not very high. This finding highlights the difficulties associated with predictions of criminal career outcomes based on information available in official records, which is the main source of information available to decision-makers in the criminal justice system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rates of serious crime in the United States dropped greatly throughout the 1990s for virtually all offenses. John Donohue and Steven Levitt have argued that this reduction relates strongly to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized the abortion of unwanted pregnancies. If such pregnancies result in children with higher lifetime risks of criminality, then the greater ability to terminate these pregnancies after 1973 should reduce crime rates. The purpose of this article is to empirically assess Donohue and Levitt's basic premise that unwanted pregnancies result in children with significantly higher risk for law-violating behavior. This analysis addresses two questions. First, do children born of an unwanted pregnancy become more highly involved in juvenile delinquency during adolescence and criminal behavior during early adult-hood? Second, do the consequences of unwanted pregnancies depend upon the social and demographic characteristics of the child and family? The authors address these two questions with panel data gathered from a national sample of children born prior to Roe v. Wade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The life-course approach to criminal career research has devoted a good deal of attention to the generality or specialization of offending behavior. Typically, extant research demonstrates versatility on the part of offenders, yet such findings could be attributable, at least in part, to time and measurement aggregation bias. This work uses a temporally disaggregated and individualized measure of diversity in offending to determine whether the previous findings of generality hold up to shifts in methodology. Using data from a sample of serious felons, results indicated that the magnitude of specialization is greater than in prior studies. Regression results indicated that certain demographic and local life-circumstance variables are related to the extent of diversity. Theoretical and methodological implications are identified and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to describe the development of criminal behavior from early adolescence to late adulthood based on conviction data for a sample of Dutch offenders. Measuring over an age span of 12 to 72, we ask whether there is evidence for (1) criminal trajectories that are distinct in terms of time path, (2) a small group of persistent offenders, (3) criminal trajectories that are distinct in the mix of crimes committed, or, more specifically, persistent offenders disproportionately engaging in violent offences, and (4) different offender groups having different social profiles in life domains other than crime. The analysis is based on the conviction histories of the Dutch offenders in the Criminal Career and Life Course Study. Four trajectory groups were identified using a semi-parametric, group-based model: sporadic offenders, low-rate desisters, moderate-rate desisters and high-rate persisters. Analyses show that high-rate persisters engage in crime at a very substantial rate, even after age 50. Compared to other trajectory groups the high-rate persistent trajectory group disproportionately engages in property crimes rather than violent crimes. Also, these distinct trajectories are found to be remarkably similar across age cohorts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, which is based on individual criminal careers over a 60-year period, focuses on the development of criminal behavior. It first examines the impact that life circumstances such as work and marriage have on offending, then tests whether the effects of these circumstances are different for different groups of offenders, and finally examines the extent to which the age-crime relationship at the aggregate level can be explained by age-graded differences in life circumstances. Official data were retrieved for a 4-percent (N=4,615) sample of all individuals whose criminal case was tried in the Netherlands in 1977. Self-report data were derived from a nationally representative survey administered in the Netherlands in 1996 to 2,244 individuals aged 15 years or older. In analyzing this data, we use semi-parametric group-based models. Results indicate that life circumstances substantially influence the chances of criminal behavior, and that the effects of these circumstances on offending differ across offender groups. Age-graded changes in life circumstances, however, explain the aggregate age-crime relationship only to a modest extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With data from respondents in Nizhni Novgorod, Russia, we address the generality of self-control theory. We also assess two hypotheses. The first focuses on the attractiveness of criminal acts, that is, motivation toward crime. The second concerns the contention that the mediating link between self-control and criminal conduct is the failure of those with less self-control to anticipate the long-term costs of misbehavior. Although the magnitude of associations between self-control and indicators of criminal behavior is about the same in this study as it is in others, which suggests that the theory is not culturally bound, those associations are largely overshadowed by criminal attraction. Consistent with that, failure to anticipate costly long-term consequences does not appear to be the mediating link between self-control and criminal behavior: the evidence shows no tendency for sanction fear to be greater among those with greater self-control. In fact, sanction fear is modestly and significantly related to the crime measures independent of self-control, though sanction fear also appears to be influenced by criminal attraction. The results suggest that in the production of criminal behavior, motivation may be more important than controls inhibiting criminal impulses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article applies an individual-level routine activities perspective to explaining rates of delinquency. The theoretical analysis also links the opportunity processes of that perspective to key themes of social disorganization theory. Multilevel analyses of 4,358 eighth-grade students from thirty-six schools in ten cities support the central hypothesis: Time spent in unstructured socializing with peers has both individual and contextual effects that explain a large share of the variation in rates of delinquency across groups of adolescents who attend different schools. In addition, parental monitoring has a very strong contextual effect on unstructured socializing, which supports the proposed integration of routine activity and social disorganization perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a test of Moffitt's (1993) prediction on the stability of longitudinal antisocial behavior, using data from the South-Holland Study. Aggressive (overt) and non-aggressive antisocial (covert) behaviors were measured when subjects were 6-11 years old, and at follow-ups when they were 12-17 years old and 20-25 years old. In accordance with the postulate, we did find a higher level of stability of overt behavior from childhood to adulthood, compared with childhood to adolescence, especially in combination with early manifestations of status violations and/or covert behavior in childhood. Results related to the stability of covert behavior were not in accordance with the prediction, but did support the recently proposed adjustment to the starting age of the adult phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linking recently collected data to form what is arguably the longest longitudinal study of crime to date, this paper examines trajectories of offending over the life course of delinquent boys followed from ages 7 to 70. We assess whether there is a distinct offender group whose rates of crime remain stable with increasing age, and whether individual differences, childhood characteristics, and family background can foretell long-term trajectories of offending. On both counts, our results come back negative. Crime declines with age sooner or later for all offender groups, whether identified prospectively according to a multitude of childhood and adolescent risk factors, or retrospectively based on latent-class models of trajectories. We conclude that desistance processes are at work even among active offenders and predicted life-course persisters, and that childhood prognoses account poorly for long-term trajectories of offending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]