Age-at-onset and Delinquency (From Delinquency Careers in Two Birth Cohorts, P 175-212, 1990, by Paul E Tracy, Marvin E. Wolfgang, et al., -- See NCJ-134672)

• NCJ Number: 134677
• Author(s): P E Tracy; M E Wolfgang; R M Figlio
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 38 pages
• Sale Source: Plenum Press
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Data from 9,945 males born in Philadelphia in 1945 and 13,160 males born in Philadelphia in 1958 provided information about the age of onset of delinquency.

Abstract

Results revealed that most delinquents were initially contacted by the police between the ages of 12 and 16. Ages 15 and 16 were the most common ages of onset. Few youths had their first police contact at age 11 or earlier. Nonwhites generally incurred their first police contact at an earlier age than whites. In addition, earlier ages of onset were associated with larger numbers of offenses. Morever, youths in the 1945 cohort who began their delinquency careers early committed higher percentages of index offenses than other youths, but this relationship did not hold for the youths born in 1958. Theft offenses were the most common index offense. Overall, the 1958 cohort had higher rates of delinquency, especially with respect to the most serious offenses, than did the 1945 cohort. However, age at onset was not strongly related to offense severity. Most important, the cohorts were so similar in age at onset that this factor did not explain the greater severity of delinquency in the later cohort. Tables