Stockholm Prize in Criminology - Interview With John Laub and Robert Sampson

• NCJ Number: 236391
• Author(s): John Laub; Robert Sampson
• Date Published: June 2011
• Length: 0 pages
• Agencies: NIJ
• Publication Type: Issue Overview; Interview; Conference Material

Annotation

This the video and transcript of an interview with John Laub and Robert Sampson at the 2011 NIJ Conference, in which they discuss their experiences and insights in conducting the research that earned them the Stockholm Prize in Criminology.

Abstract

Their work involved a review and analysis of the data collected by Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck, who had conducted four longitudinal studies that collected exhaustive data on the life courses of delinquent boys, one of which ("Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency") involved following the life events of 500 delinquent boys. Laub and Sampson received an NIJ grant to code the Glueck data. It involved reconstructing the data archive and creating a database that can be used with modern statistical techniques. The initial focus of the work was on the role that families play in crime, and this evolved into a study of the impact of childhood temperament and socialization on crime over the life course. This consisted of the development of an age-graded theory of informal social control that was tested with reconstructed Glueck data. Areas of discussion in this interview about Laub and Sampson's work included desistance from crime, the study of modern-day adolescents, and the key to a successful research partnership, Other issues associated with their work were also briefly discussed.