Criminal Career Dimensions of Juvenile- and Adult-Onset Offenders

Abstract

Purpose Earlier studies tried to predict and explain adult-onset offending, most often by comparing risk factors for juvenile and adult onset of criminal behavior. Little is known, however, about how criminal careers of adult-onset offenders develop. The aim of this study is to describe and compare juvenile-and adult-onset criminal careers of both men and women in terms of frequency, intensity, duration, recidivism, crime mix, seriousness, and specialization. Methods Using a sample of 43,338 offenders who all had a criminal record in 2013, criminal careers are reconstructed retrospectively up to age 12 and prospectively up to the 1st of July, 2014. Male and female juvenile-and adult-onset offenders are identified and compared on the abovementioned parameters of their criminal careers. Results Compared to all other groups, female adult-onset offenders commit fewer crimes, offend at a lower rate, desist from crime earlier, have lower recidivism risks at least up to the tenth crime, commit different types of offenses, commit more minor and less serious crimes, and are more specialized in the types of crime they commit. Male juvenile-onset offenders have the most serious career in terms of these career dimensions. Conclusions Criminal careers of adult-onset offenders, both men and women, develop differently on all dimensions. Implications for life-course criminological theories and prevention strategies are discussed.Keywords Adult-onset offending . Criminal career dimensions J Dev Life Course Criminology (2018) 4:92-119 https://doi

Delinquency in Emerging Adulthood: Insights into Trajectories of Young Adults in a German Sample and Implications for Measuring Continuity of Offending

“…Conditional LCGA includes covariates of interest and would be the proper method to do this. Similarly, future research needs to show whether this study's adult-onset group fits the already established literature (Krohn et al 2013;Beckley et al 2016;Van Koppen 2018).…”

“…A trajectory of very late adult onset would have to answer the question: If adolescence was the typical time for most delinquency to occur, why would somebody with no (visible) inclination to commit a crime in early adolescence start in late adolescence or even in adulthood? There is currently a vivid debate around the existence of an adult-onset group of individuals (Krohn et al 2013;Beckley et al 2016;van Koppen 2018). Such a trajectory would also touch the issue of desistance: the "aging out of crime" usually entails entering traditional adult roles marked by a permanent job, marriage, and parenthood.…”

Differentiating Individuals Convicted of Sexual Offenses: A Two-Country Latent Class Analysis

“…The adult onset criminal career pattern, characterized by the absence of both sexual and nonsexual offending prior to age 25, is also found in prior criminal career studies (Van Koppen et al, 2014). In fact, a recent systematic review of criminal career studies reports a mean prevalence of adult onset offenders of 38% across sampled studies (Van Koppen, 2018). Despite its prevalence, dominant typological accounts, such as Moffitt’s (1993) taxonomy, do not include a late blooming trajectory (yet, see Thornberry, 2005), rendering adult onset offenders a neglected category in extant life-course theory and research (Sapouna, 2015).…”

Risk Factors of Early Adolescence in the Criminal Career of Polish Offenders in the Light of Life Course Theory

“…Thus, there is a high level of social (and academic) sensitivity to early symptoms of “social maladjustment”, because such manifestations indicate a risk of amplifying adult crime rates in the future. Over the years, numerous studies (mostly longitudinal or using a biographical method) have addressed this topic, producing a long list of childhood and adolescent risk factors for an individual’s initiation and development of a criminal career [ 8 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. The literature indicates that juvenile offenders disproportionately come from neglectful backgrounds with cumulative disadvantages in which the child’s basic needs are not met [ 14 ] (pp.…”

“…Koppen [ 13 ] (p. 94) as well as Thornberry [ 31 ] advocated the idea that instead of discussing the general onset of criminal careers, we should look at “different factors explaining the onset of crime at different ages”. Koppen [ 13 ] (p. 94) argued that “important factors explaining the onset of delinquency in early childhood (before age six), for example, are neuropsychological deficits and poor parenting. Individuals who start committing crimes in later childhood (ages 6–12) are influenced by their family and neighborhood, while adolescent offenders (ages 12–18) are influenced by their peers.”…”