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Life-Course Criminology

Life-Course Criminology. Age-Crime Relationship Stability and Change in Offending. The Age-Crime Relationship, 1997. Arrest Rate. 4000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0. Property Crimes, peak age = 16. Violent Crimes, peak age = 18. 10 20 30 40 50. Age at Arrest.

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Life-Course Criminology

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  1. Life-Course Criminology Age-Crime Relationship Stability and Change in Offending

  2. The Age-Crime Relationship, 1997 Arrest Rate 4000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 Property Crimes, peak age = 16 Violent Crimes, peak age = 18 10 20 30 40 50 Age at Arrest

  3. Is the Age/Crime Curve Misleading? • Data is AGGREGATE • It could hide subgroups of offenders, or “offending trajectories” • Data is Cross-Sectional • Doesn’t track stability/change over time • Data is OFFICIAL • Cannot tell us about the precursors to official delinquency (childhood antisocial behavior)

  4. New and Old Ideas • OLD • Crime is the province of adolescents • Theories of delinquency most important • New • Why do some age out of crime while others don’t? • Why is criminality so stable over time? • What causes crime throughout life?

  5. Antisocial Behavior Is Stable • Correlation between past and future criminal behavior ranges from .6 to .7 (very strong) • Lee Robins- Studies of cohorts of males • Antisocial Personality as an adult virtually requires history of CASB • CASB as early as age 6 related to delinquency • More severe behavior has more stability • “Early onset delinquency” powerful indicator of stability

  6. But there is CHANGE • 1/2 of antisocial children are never arrested • The vast majority of delinquents desist as they enter adulthood (mid 20s)

  7. Explaining Stability and Change in Antisocial Behavior I • Social Selection (TRAIT) Explanation • Individuals posses a trait that is stable and criminogenic • Trait established early in life (before delinquency) • Explains stability, but change (desistance)? • If trait is stable, why do people desist from crime?

  8. Explaining Stability and Change in Antisocial Behavior II • Cumulative Continuity • Initial antisocial behavior (regardless of cause) has CONSEQUENCES • Knife off opportunity, labeling, attract delinquent peers... • Because the consequences (social circumstances) can change, desistance is plausible

  9. General theory or “taxons?” • General theory • Cause of antisocial behavior same for everyone. • All people tend to peak in their offending during late adolescence and desist soon thereafter • Taxonomic Theory • Different types of offenders exist

  10. Developmental Taxonomies • Developmental Taxonomy? • All offenders are not the same, all crime is not caused by the same causal forces • There are at least two unique “offending trajectories” present • One groups maybe very stable in their offending • Another might might have a brief delinquency career • Kids are on different offending trajectories for different reasons

  11. Review • Explaining Stability and Change • Why are some kids antisocial early in life? • Why is antisocial behavior so stable? • Why, amidst stability, is there so much change? • Trait vs. Cumulative Continuity • General vs. Taxonomic

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