Part Two: On Longitudinal Research in Criminology and First Results from the Freiburg Cohort Study (From Crime and Criminal Justice: Criminological Research in the 2nd Decade at the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg, P 89-114, 1988, Gunther Kaiser and Isolde Geissler, eds. -- See NCJ-116131)

• NCJ Number: 116134
• Author(s): T Karger; P Sutterer
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 26 pages
• Sale Source: Max-Planck-Institute Fur Auslandisches und Internationales Strafrecht
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: West Germany (Former)

Annotation

The value of longitudinal research in criminology is explored, and a cohort project being conducted by West Germany's Max Planck Institute is described.

Abstract

Controversy over longitudinal research focuses on four main areas: whether the age-crime relationship is invariant or varies across different subpopulations and/or offenses; whether a negative age-crime relationship observed on an aggregate level also exists on an individual level; whether computing different criminal career parameters is useful from theoretical and practical perspectives; and whether longitudinal research is superior to a cross-sectional design. The cohort project being conducted at the Max Planck Institute involves the analysis of police registration data and judicial records for four birth cohorts (1970, 1973, 1975, and 1978); the project will explore prevalence and incidence parameters of criminality. The Institute envisions that a detailed analysis of crime development on an individual level will be possible only by using a longitudinal design. Differences in the age-crime relationship will be researched for males and females and for Germans versus non-Germans. Particular attention will be paid to offense-specific differences. The linking of police data with conviction data will permit analyzing the interdependency of police registration and conviction in the biography of offenders. 15 references, 8 tables, 6 figures.