NCJ Number
129040
Journal
Criminal Justice Review Volume: 15 Issue: 2 Dated: (Autumn 1990) Pages: 151-172
Date Published
1990
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This paper identifies career criminals in the 1958 Philadelphia Birth Cohort based on data on juvenile delinquency involvement and demographic attributes. It focuses on improvement in research design, selection of subjects, operationalization of concepts, and statistical analysis techniques.
Abstract
The results indicate that youth without an official police contact were less prone to be charged with a crime during early adulthood than those youth identified as delinquents. Conversely, more adult offenders had experienced a police contact before the age of 18. Of the juvenile delinquents, those with the higher number of police contacts had been criminally charged as adults more often than any other group and more frequently than nondelinquents. These career patterns of criminality are substantiated when gender, race, socioeconomic status, and age at first police contact are simultaneously controlled. This study provides information on career criminals, but does not explain why these careers occur. Future research should focus on development of theoretical explanations for the phenomena that this and other longitudinal studies have identified. An overview of major research studies on criminal career development is appended. 5 tables, 10 notes, and 97 references (Author abstract modified)