- The Oxford Handbooks in Criminology and Criminal Justice
- Copyright Page
- Foreword
- Preface
- Contributors
- Developmental and Life-Course Criminology
- Age and Crime
- Age of Onset of Offending Behavior
- Specialization and Versatility in Offending
- Acceleration, Deceleration, Escalation, and De-escalation
- Persistence and Desistance
- Trajectories of Criminal Behavior Across the Life Course
- Co-offending
- The Developmental Taxonomy
- Developmental Pathways to Conduct Problems and Serious Forms of Delinquency
- The Integrated Cognitive Antisocial Potential (ICAP) Theory: New Empirical Tests
- The Interconnected Development of Personal Controls and Antisocial Behavior
- The Social Development Model
- Interactional Theory
- The Dynamics of Change: Criminogenic Interactions and Life-Course Patterns in Crime
- The Age-Graded Theory of Informal Social Control
- Biosocial Influences on Offending Across the Life Course
- Personality and Other Individual Influences on Offending
- Family Influences on Youth Offending
- Peer Influences on Offending
- Schools and the Pathway to Crime: A Focus on Relationships
- Developmental Influences of Substance Use on Criminal Offending
- The Impact of Changes in Family Situations on Persistence and Desistance from Crime
- Employment, Crime, and the Life Course
- The Effects of Neighborhood Context and Residential Mobility on Criminal Persistence and Desistance
- Religion and the Military
- The Effects of Juvenile System Processing on Subsequent Delinquency Outcomes
- Effects of Incarceration
- Desistance and Cognitive Transformations
- Developmental and Life-Course Findings on Women and Girls
- Family-Based Programs for Preventing Delinquency and Later Offending
- Developmental Preschool and School Programs Against Violence and Offending
- Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment to Prevent Offending and to Rehabilitate Offenders
- Cost-Benefit Analysis of Developmental Prevention
- Conclusions and Implications for Developmental and Life-Course Criminology
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter provides an alternative framework for thinking about the research on age and crime. It argues that, contrary to a popular view in the research literature that emphasizes differences, there is considerable commonality of findings on age and crime, regardless of the approach taken to its study. The chapter provides an overview of what is meant by the age–crime curve and distinguishes that from the age distribution of crime. Next, basic facts of the age-crime relationship are discussed, followed by explanations of that relationship. The chapter then discusses the issue of whether individual age–crime curves fit the aggregate pattern and, finally, provides an illustration of how varying assumptions of the age–crime curve affect aggregate patterns using simulations.
Keywords: age, age–crime curve, age distribution
Chester L. Britt (deceased) was Chair of the Department of Sociology at Iowa State University.
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- The Oxford Handbooks in Criminology and Criminal Justice
- Copyright Page
- Foreword
- Preface
- Contributors
- Developmental and Life-Course Criminology
- Age and Crime
- Age of Onset of Offending Behavior
- Specialization and Versatility in Offending
- Acceleration, Deceleration, Escalation, and De-escalation
- Persistence and Desistance
- Trajectories of Criminal Behavior Across the Life Course
- Co-offending
- The Developmental Taxonomy
- Developmental Pathways to Conduct Problems and Serious Forms of Delinquency
- The Integrated Cognitive Antisocial Potential (ICAP) Theory: New Empirical Tests
- The Interconnected Development of Personal Controls and Antisocial Behavior
- The Social Development Model
- Interactional Theory
- The Dynamics of Change: Criminogenic Interactions and Life-Course Patterns in Crime
- The Age-Graded Theory of Informal Social Control
- Biosocial Influences on Offending Across the Life Course
- Personality and Other Individual Influences on Offending
- Family Influences on Youth Offending
- Peer Influences on Offending
- Schools and the Pathway to Crime: A Focus on Relationships
- Developmental Influences of Substance Use on Criminal Offending
- The Impact of Changes in Family Situations on Persistence and Desistance from Crime
- Employment, Crime, and the Life Course
- The Effects of Neighborhood Context and Residential Mobility on Criminal Persistence and Desistance
- Religion and the Military
- The Effects of Juvenile System Processing on Subsequent Delinquency Outcomes
- Effects of Incarceration
- Desistance and Cognitive Transformations
- Developmental and Life-Course Findings on Women and Girls
- Family-Based Programs for Preventing Delinquency and Later Offending
- Developmental Preschool and School Programs Against Violence and Offending
- Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment to Prevent Offending and to Rehabilitate Offenders
- Cost-Benefit Analysis of Developmental Prevention
- Conclusions and Implications for Developmental and Life-Course Criminology
- Index