TY - JOUR
T1 - The Onset of Adult Offending: A Neglected Dimension of the Criminal Career
AU - Doherty, Elaine
AU - Laub, John H.
N1 - The conventional wisdom in criminology is that adult onset of offending is a rare event. Closer examination of the extant literature that use official...
PY - 2002
Y1 - 2002
N2 - The conventional wisdom in criminology is that adult onset of offending is a rare event. Closer examination of the extant literature that use official records, however, reveals that an average of 50 percent of adult offenders initiate offending at age eighteen or older. Although criminological research has investigated late onset offending in adolescence, there is little research on adult onset offending and the correlates of adult offending. Using police contact and interview data from the 1942 and 1949 birth cohort data from Racine, WI, this study investigated the correlates of crime for adult onset and persistent offenders. The results show that employment is the only correlate to affect the probability of adult offending differently for previously delinquent and nondelinquent offenders. This article concludes by highlighting the neglect of research on adult offenders, specifically the large percentage of adult onset offenders, and calling for more research on this topic.
AB - The conventional wisdom in criminology is that adult onset of offending is a rare event. Closer examination of the extant literature that use official records, however, reveals that an average of 50 percent of adult offenders initiate offending at age eighteen or older. Although criminological research has investigated late onset offending in adolescence, there is little research on adult onset offending and the correlates of adult offending. Using police contact and interview data from the 1942 and 1949 birth cohort data from Racine, WI, this study investigated the correlates of crime for adult onset and persistent offenders. The results show that employment is the only correlate to affect the probability of adult offending differently for previously delinquent and nondelinquent offenders. This article concludes by highlighting the neglect of research on adult offenders, specifically the large percentage of adult onset offenders, and calling for more research on this topic.
UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235202001939
U2 - 10.1016/S0047-2352(02)00193-9
DO - 10.1016/S0047-2352(02)00193-9
M3 - Article
VL - 30
JO - Journal of Criminal Justice
JF - Journal of Criminal Justice
ER -