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Background: Late-onset offending, at the age of 21 or thereafter, is an underexplored dimension of the criminal career., Aims: Our aims were to explore which factors are precursors of late-onset offending, and the extent to which adult criminality can be predicted in childhood and adolescence., Method: This is the first study that defines late-onset offending based on a combination of official records and self-reports. Longitudinal data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD) were used. Four hundred and three South London men, followed from ages 8-10 to ages 48-50, were divided into late-starters (LS, n = 51), early-starters (ES, n = 140) and non-offenders (NO, n = 212)., Results: LS men were more likely than NO men to have been neurotic, truants or in poor housing at ages 8-10. At ages 12-14, they tended to be neurotic, and at ages 16-18, they had high unemployment and spent time hanging about on the streets. Compared with ES, LS were nervous at ages 8-10, and at age 18 they were more likely to be sexual virgins. Overall, LS men were more similar to NO men before age 21, but more similar to ES men by age 32., Conclusions: Our hypotheses that late-onset offenders would be particularly characterised by neuroticism or nervousness, but that this would buffer rather than fully protect over the life course, were sustained. Intervention to increase the resilience of children and adolescents who are rated as high on neurotic characteristics may lessen the burden that these factors impose in adult life and reduce the risk of a deteriorating quality of life and late onset criminal careers., (© 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

This study explores the emergence of a criminal career in adulthood. The main hypothesis tested is that late criminal onset (at age 21 or later) is influenced by early factors that delay antisocial manifestations. The Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD) was used to examine early determinants of criminal behavior. 400 Inner London males were followed from ages 8-10 to 48-50, and were classified as follows: 35 late onsetters who were first convicted at age 21 or later, and did not have high self-reported delinquency at ages 10-14 and 15-18; 129 early onsetters first convicted between ages 10 and 20; and 236 unconvicted males. Odds ratios and logistic regression analyses revealed that the best predictors of late onset offenders compared with early onset offenders included nervousness, having few friends at ages 8-10, and not having sexual intercourse by age 18. The best predictors of late onset offenders compared with nonoffenders included teacher-rated anxiousness at ages 12-14 and high neuroticism at age 16. It is concluded that being nervous and withdrawn protected boys against offending in adolescence but that these protective effects tended to wear off after age 21. These findings show that adult offending can be predicted from childhood, and suggest that early intervention might prevent a variety of maladjustment problems and difficulties in adult life.