NCJ Number
167738
Date Published
1997
Length
29 pages
Annotation
The authors consider conceptions of time and systematic change implied by a developmental approach to studying antisocial and criminal behavior and propose the idea of cumulative disadvantage to explain delinquency based on a dynamic conceptualization of social control over the life course.
Abstract
Research shows individual differences in antisocial behavior are relatively stable over time, and dominant criminological theories have been treated as largely static in their predictions. Labeling theory is the only criminological theory that is truly developmental in nature because of its explicit emphasis on processes over time. The central idea of social control theory is that crime and deviance are more likely when an individual's bond to society is weak or broken. A developmental conceptualization of labeling theory, integrated with the age-graded theory of informal social control, provides an alternative way of thinking about trait-based interpretations of behavioral stability. This cumulative disadvantage approach focuses on the family, the school, peers, and criminal justice and institutional reactions. The synthesis of cumulative disadvantage and state dependence recasts in a structural and developmental framework the original contentions of labeling theory that official reactions to primary deviance may create adjustment problems and foster additional crime in the form of secondary deviance. The authors point out, however, that their theory of cumulative continuity and the causal role of salient life experiences in adulthood do not negate the potential importance of self-selection and individual differences. 108 references and 5 notes