Life-Course Criminology

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
• Doesnt track stability/change over time
• Data is OFFICIAL
• Cannot tell us about the precursors to official
  delinquency (childhood antisocial behavior)

4
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

5
But there is CHANGE

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

6
New and Old Ideas

• OLD Crime is the province of adolescents
  theories of delinquency most important
• Easier to find/survey adolescents too!
• New (Considering stability/development )
• Central causes of delinquency lie in childhood
• Theories of adolescent delinquency are at best
  incomplete
• Lifecourse Questions
• Why do some age out of crime while others dont?
• Why is criminality so stable over time?
• What causes crime at different stages of life?

7
Explaining Stability and Change in Antisocial
Behavior I

• TRAIT Explanation (continuity only)
• 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
• Continuity and Change
• 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
Developmental Taxonomies

• Taxonomy (Continuity OR Change)
• 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
  (Continuity)
• Another might might have a brief delinquency
  career (Change)
• Kids are on different offending trajectories for
  different reasons

10
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?
• Three Types of Theories
• Continuity
• Continuity and Change (Sampson and Laub)
• Continuity or Change (Moffitt Patterson et al.)

11
Gerald Patterson

• Background
• Oregon Social Learning Center
• Applied Research
• Theory
• 1980s Coercion theory
• 1990s Social Interactional theory

12
Patterson et al. (Early Childhood)

• Context ? Parenting ?
  Conduct
• Problems

• Difficult child
• Grandparents skill
• Criminal Parents and Grandparents
• Poverty
• Single parent
• Family Stress and Violence

• Monitor/Supervise
• Consistent Discipline
• Consistent Reward

13
Patterson et al. (Childhood through Late
Adolescence)

• Conduct ? Peer Rejection ?Deviant Peers ?
  Delinq.
• Problems Academic Failure
• CUMULATIVE CONTINUITY

14
Patterson et al. Summary

• Similar to Gottfredson and Hirschi
• B/C GH borrow heavily from Patterson
• Differences
• Ineffective parenting leads to...
• Low self control
• Children learning that coercion works (SLT)
• Whining, use of force/violence, etc
• Developmental
• Not low self-control after age 8
• Interventions
• Parent training, school, peers, etc.

15
Patterson and Yoerger (1997)

• Addition of the later starter delinquent
• As opposed to early starter in original theory
• Still consistent with model
• If later starter, what causes late start?
• Disruption in family management (parenting)
• End up with a theory much like Terrie Moffitt