scholarly journals Childhood risk and protective factors for early desisters, late desisters and life-course persistent offenders

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
David P. Farrington
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Protective Factors ◽  
Late Onset ◽  
Risk And Protective Factors ◽  
Criminal Careers ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Life Course Persistent ◽  
School Risk Factors ◽  
Not At Risk ◽  
Childhood Factors

The aim of this article is to investigate the extent to which childhood risk and protective factors predict later persistence or desistance in criminal careers, as it has been argued that childhood factors are not predictive.  In the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, 411 London males have been followed up from age 8 to age 56.  This article investigates age 8-10 risk and protective factors for 37 life-course-persistent offenders (first offense up to age 20, last offense at age 40 or later), 38 late desisters (first offense up to age 20, last offense at age 21-39), 50 early desisters (first and last offenses up to age 20), 41 late onset offenders (first offense at age 21 or later), and 227 nonoffenders.  18 males were excluded from the analysis because they were not at risk of a recorded conviction from age 40 onwards (because of death or emigration).  The results showed that several childhood factors predicted persistence compared with desistance.  Individual and school risk factors (e.g. low popularity and low school attainment) were the most important predictors of whether an offender up to age 20 persisted after this age or desisted.  Family protective factors (e.g. good child-rearing and high parental interest in education) were most important in protecting offenders from becoming life-course-persistent offenders and encouraging desistance before age 40.

scholarly journals Testing Two Theories of Criminal Careers: A Criminal Career Profile Approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Joanne Clare Cahill
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Criminal Careers ◽  
Criminal Career ◽  
Criminal Behaviour ◽  
Limited Evidence ◽  
Social Controls ◽  
Life Course Persistent ◽  
Career Research ◽  
Profile Approach

<p>Criminal career research has emerged as a field interested in determining the factors related to the onset, frequency, duration, maintenance, and desistance of criminal behaviour (Blumstein & Cohen, 1987; Blumstein, Cohen, & Farrington, 1988). Various theories have been developed to account for these components of the criminal career, and the present research aims to examine the desistance components of two such theories in a sample of high risk adult offenders. Looking first at Moffitt’s (1993) adolescencelimited/ life-course persistent perspective, and then at Laub and Sampson’s (1993; Sampson & Laub, 2005) theory of informal social controls, there is limited evidence that either frequency of conviction or criminal career seriousness in high risk adult offenders can be explained well by reference to either of these theories alone. Although components of each theory appear to have some support within this sample, it is important to note that the prediction of future seriousness appears to be particularly difficult. Implications of these findings are discussed, with particular reference to policy concerns and areas for additional research.</p>

scholarly journals Initiation, Desistence, and Recovery: A Qualitative Examination of Self-Injury from a Life-Course Perspective

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Wojciechowski
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Protective Factors ◽  
Risk And Protective Factors ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Control Theory ◽  
Self Injury ◽  
Criminological Perspective ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
The Impact

Self-injury is typically defined as the intentional harm caused to one’s own body. This phenomenon has historically been studied mainly from a psychological perspective and has focused less on social forces related to engagement in this behavior. While research on self-injury has examined etiology extensively, there has yet to be an examination of how changes in exposure to risk and protective factors may lead to changes in self-injury habits. This research uses qualitative interview data from 16 former and current self-injurers to examine self-injury from a life-course criminological perspective (Cullen, Agnew, & Wilcox, 2014). These data allowed for identification of concepts associated with social learning theory, general strain theory, social control theory, and social support theory as important risk and protective factors associated with self-injury. Further, this identification allowed for an examination of how the application and withdrawal of these risk and protective factors led to changes in self-injury habits. Future research should seek to generalize these results and further clarify the impact of risk and protective factors across the life-course.

scholarly journals Testing Two Theories of Criminal Careers: A Criminal Career Profile Approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Joanne Clare Cahill
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Criminal Careers ◽  
Criminal Career ◽  
Criminal Behaviour ◽  
Limited Evidence ◽  
Social Controls ◽  
Life Course Persistent ◽  
Career Research ◽  
Profile Approach

<p>Criminal career research has emerged as a field interested in determining the factors related to the onset, frequency, duration, maintenance, and desistance of criminal behaviour (Blumstein & Cohen, 1987; Blumstein, Cohen, & Farrington, 1988). Various theories have been developed to account for these components of the criminal career, and the present research aims to examine the desistance components of two such theories in a sample of high risk adult offenders. Looking first at Moffitt’s (1993) adolescencelimited/ life-course persistent perspective, and then at Laub and Sampson’s (1993; Sampson & Laub, 2005) theory of informal social controls, there is limited evidence that either frequency of conviction or criminal career seriousness in high risk adult offenders can be explained well by reference to either of these theories alone. Although components of each theory appear to have some support within this sample, it is important to note that the prediction of future seriousness appears to be particularly difficult. Implications of these findings are discussed, with particular reference to policy concerns and areas for additional research.</p>

Childhood Risk Factors for Self-Reported Versus Official Life-Course-Persistent, Adolescence-Limited, and Late-Onset Offending

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgia Zara ◽  
David P. Farrington
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Late Onset ◽  
Criminal Career ◽  
Prevention And Intervention ◽  
Career Information ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Life Course Persistent ◽  
Childhood Risk Factors ◽  
Official Records

There has been no prior research comparing risk factors for categories of convicted individuals (C-types: life-course-persistent; adolescence-limited; late-onset) compared with the corresponding categories of individuals who self-reported offending (SR-types). This article examines the extent to which these convicted and self-reported categories of individuals overlap, and explores childhood risk factors that predict categories of C-types and SR-types. Criminal career information about individuals involved in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD) is used; 25 childhood factors were analyzed. C-types and SR-types were more problematic than both official and SR nonoffenders. Life-course persisters, adolescence-limited offenders, and nonoffenders overlapped in official records and self-reports, but late-onset offenders did not. C-types were significantly similar to SR-types in childhood risk factors; only a few differences were found. The differences between C-types and SR-types might be better conceptualized as quantitative rather than qualitative. Implications for prevention and intervention are discussed.

Antisoziales Verhalten im Jugendalter: Entstehungsbedingungen und Verlaufsformen

2001 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 297-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Laucht
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Life Course Persistent

Zusammenfassung: Ausmaß und Verbreitung von Gewalt und Delinquenz unter Kindern und Jugendlichen haben in den letzten 15 Jahren kontinuierlich zugenommen. Bei dem Bestreben, dieser Entwicklung entgegenzuwirken, können neuere Erkenntnisse der entwicklungspsychopathologischen und neurobiologischen Forschung wichtige Hilfestellung leisten. In einem Modell von Moffitt werden zwei Entwicklungswege antisozialer Verhaltensprobleme beschrieben, die sich hinsichtlich des Störungsbeginns und -verlaufs unterscheiden: ein Pfad, der durch eine frühzeitig einsetzende und über den Lebenslauf stabile Symptomatik charakterisiert ist (“life-course persistent”), sowie ein Pfad mit einem episodenhaften, auf das Jugendalter begrenzten Auftreten antisozialer Auffälligkeiten (“adolescence-limited”). Während im letzteren Fall die spezifischen Entwicklungsaufgaben und Lebensbedingungen Jugendlicher eine maßgebliche Rolle bei Entstehung und Verlauf spielen, entsteht persistentes antisoziales Verhalten als Resultat eines transaktionalen Prozesses zwischen Kind und Umwelt. Neben psychosozialen Faktoren kommt dabei biologischen Prädispositionen (genetische Belastung) und psychologischen Dispositionen (Temperaments- und Persönlichkeitsmerkmale) eine zentrale Bedeutung zu. Wichtige Aufschlüsse über die zugrunde liegenden Mechanismen versprechen die jüngsten Fortschritte der neurobiologischen und persönlichkeitspsychologischen Forschung. Die Integration beider Ansätze kann dazu beitragen, Maßnahmen der Prävention und Frühintervention zielgruppenorientierter auszurichten und damit wirkungsvoller zu gestalten.

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