NCJ Number
173645
Date Published
1998
Length
84 pages
Annotation
Developmental criminology is explained and proposed as a perspective that will give important new insights into the study of crime and crime causes.
Abstract
Developmental criminology quantifies dynamic concepts for describing important ingredients of change and stability. It distinguishes between continuity and stability and thereby recognizes that manifestations of deviance in the course of individuals' lives may change, while the underlying propensity for deviance may remain stable. It considers the course of offending in other developmental contexts such as life transitions and developmental covariates, which may mediate the developmental course of offending. It also aims at generating new knowledge about the etiology and precursors of offending; this knowledge may be relevant for much-needed improvements in future prevention and intervention programs. Activation, aggravation, and desistance are the three primary developmental processes of offending. Developmental criminology poses new questions and therefore encourages innovation in analytic methods that may help to describe and explain longitudinal changes in individuals' offending. These processes do not occur merely as a function of individuals' chronological age. It is important to look for variables that determine or mediate the variation of behavior with age. It also is possible to examine individuals' positions within a sequence, distinguishing between individuals' qualitative and quantitative changes in offending. Tables, figures, and approximately 250 references (Author abstract modified)