Age-Graded Pathways into Crime: Evidence from a Multi-Site Retrospective Study of Incarcerated Women

The paucity of studies that examine women’s criminal careers, particularly beyond the period of young adulthood, has made it difficult for scholars to determine whether developmental pathways—especially precursors of adult-onset offending—vary. This paper examines the onset of offending among women, from childhood to adulthood. We draw from a retrospective life event calendar administered to women prisoners across three data collection sites. Sorting the women into different onset groups based on self-reports of first time offending, we ask whether there are unique predictors of early, adolescent, and adult-onset status and whether our results are sensitive to the age at which adulthood is measured (18–20 versus 21 and older). In contrast with some criminal career research, this study reveals a sizeable percentage of female offenders who initiate offending in adulthood (43 %). Compared with adult onset, early initiation is associated with childhood sexual abuse, sexual precocity, and low supervision and lack of childhood bonds. Adolescent onset is also associated with some of these same characteristics (compared to adult initiation), but a lack of childhood bonds is unassociated with young adult onset compared to adult initiation. Adult offenders are differentiated by the absence of these risks. Post-offending, young adult starters tend to have, on average, a more extensive criminal history and association with criminal friends, somewhat higher drug involvement (use and drug dealing), and more offense variety than do offenders who initiate after age 21. Early initiation, and to some extent adolescent onset, tends to reveal more post-offending disadvantages especially when compared with adults. Our findings suggest distinct groups among the adult offenders—one consistent with Thornberry and Krohn’s idea of “late bloomers” and another older initiator group for whom the mechanisms of onset remain unidentified.