Long-term Prediction of Offending and Other Life Outcomes (From Criminal Behavior and the Justice System: Psychological Perspectives, P 26-39, 1989, Hermann Wegener, et al, eds. -- See NCJ-116624)

• NCJ Number: 116625
• Author(s): D P Farrington
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: Springer-Verlag
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Data from a prospective longitudinal study of 411 British males formed the basis of an analysis of the possibility of explaining or predicting adult criminality from factors identified at ages 8 or 9.

Abstract

The participants were all living in a working-class area of London and were ages 8-9 when they were first contacted in 1961-62. Most of the boys were white. They were interviewed and tested in their schools when they were about 8, 10, and 14. They were subsequently interviewed at the ages of about 16, 18, 21, and 32. Information was gathered about intelligence, achievement, personality, living circumstances, employment histories, and leisure activities like fighting, drinking, and drug taking. Information was also gathered from parents and teachers. Findings shows that explanatory and predictive scales developed earlier significantly predicted convictions between ages 27 and 32, as well as several aspects of life success or failure. Individual variables measured at ages 8-10 also had long-term predictive power. Low family income at age 8 was the best predictor of general social failure at age 32. Further research should examine which factors protect boys from criminogenic backgrounds from becoming social failures and which encourage such boys to become social successes. Tables and 19 references.