ADULT CRIMINAL OFFENSE TRENDS FOLLOWING JUVENILE DELINQUENCY.

This study ascertains what sort of offense sequence patterns were followed by adult recidivists who began their official criminal histories prior to age eighteen. The literature of juvenile delinquency emphasizes that many adult criminal careers start with juvenile delinquency. This study is concerned with those whose criminal activities continue into the adult years. Pursuant to this objective, a grid charting technique was devised to show just how such criminal sequences develop from initial juvenile offenses, and what sort of offense sequences follow. This paper is an outgrowth of a study made by the writer in 1952 of 319 official criminal histories of recidivists in Indiana prisons. These 319 cases were drawn from inmate files of the Indiana Reformatory and the Indiana State Prison. The information was compiled from U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation records, case summaries, and community reports. Only cases were drawn which showed a prior criminal history, and these were selected on a random sampling basis.