Abstract
For centuries, criminologists have observed thatmost criminal offenses showa sharp rise in prevalence during adolescence, followed by a relatively rapid decline in the early twenties (Hirschi & Gottfredson, 1983; Quetelet, 1984 [1833]). The dramatic decrease in criminal behavior during young adulthood, and increasing scholarly interest in desistance more generally, have led researchers to work to uncover the processes behind age-linked change in offending. Because the drop in offending occurs during the same period of the life course in which many individuals adopt adult roles, role transitions have received growing attention as potential explanations for desistance.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Agnew, R. (2001). Building on the foundation of general strain theory: Specifying the types of strain most likely to lead to crime and delinquency.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 38, 319–361.
Allison, P. D. (1990). Change scores as dependent variables in regression analysis. Sociological Methodology, 20, 93–114.
Angrist, J. D., & Krueger, A. B. (2001). Instrumental variables and the search for identification: From supply and demand to natural experiments. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 15, 69–85.
Arnett, J. J. (1998). Risk behavior and family role transitions during the twenties. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 27, 301–320.
Bachman, J. G., O’Malley, P. M., & Johnston, L. D. (1984). Drug use among young adults: The impacts of role status and social environment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 629–645.
Bernburg, J. G., & Krohn, M. D. (2003). Labeling, life chances and adult crime: The direct and indirect effects of official intervention in adolescence on crime in early adulthood. Criminology, 41, 1287–1318.
Blokland, A. A. J., & Nieuwbeerta, P. (2005). The effects of life circumstances on longitudinal trajectories of offending. Criminology, 43, 1203–1233.
Bushway, S., Piquero, A., Broidy, L., Cauffman, E., & Mazerolle, P. (2001). An empirical framework for studying desistance as a process. Criminology, 39, 491–516.
Bushway, S., & Reuter, P. (1997). Labor markets and crime risk factors. In L. Sherman, D. Gottfredson, D. MacKenzie, J. Eck, P. Reuter, & S. Bushway (Eds.), Preventing crime: What works, what doesn’t, what’s promising (pp. 198–240). Washington, DC: Office of Justice Programs, U. S. Department of Justice.
Cernkovich, S. A., & Giordano, P. C. (2001). Stability and change in antisocial behavior: The transition from adolescence to early adulthood. Criminology, 39, 371–410.
Elder, G. H. (1994). Time, human agency, and social change: Perspectives on the life course. Social Psychology Quarterly, 57, 4–15.
Elliott, D. S. (1994). Serious violent offenders: Onset, developmental course, and termination. Criminology, 32, 1–21.
Farrington, D. P., Gallagher, B., Morley, L., St., Ledger, R. J., & West, D. J. (1986). Unemployment, school leaving, and crime. British Journal of Criminology, 26, 335–356.
Farrington, D. P., & West, D. J. (1995). Effects of marriage, separation, and children on offending by adult males. Current Perspectives on Aging and the Life Cycle, 4, 249–281.
Freedman, D., Thornton, A., Camburn, D., Alwin, D., & Young-DeMarco, L. (1988). The life history calendar: A technique for collecting retrospective data. Sociological Methodology, 18, 37–68.
Furstenberg, F. F., Kennedy, S., McCloyd, V. G., Rumbaut, R. G., & Settersten, R. A. (2004). Becoming an adult: The changing nature of early adulthood. Contexts, 3, 33–41.
Fussell, E., & Furstenberg, F. F. (2005). The transition to adulthood during the twentieth century: Race, nativity, and gender. In R. A. Settersten, Jr., F. F. Furstenberg, Jr., & R. G. Rumbaut (Eds.), On the frontier of adulthood: Theory, research, and public policy (pp. 29–75). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Giordano, P. C., Cernkovich, S. A., & Rudolph, J. L. (2002). Gender, crime, and desistance: Toward a theory of cognitive transformation. American Journal of Sociology, 107, 990–1064.
Glaser, D., & Rice, K. (1959). Crime, age, and employment. American Sociological Review, 24, 679–686.
Glueck, S., & Glueck, E. (1950). Unraveling juvenile delinquency. New York: Commonwealth Fund.
Goldscheider, F. K., & DaVanzo, J. (1985). Living arrangements and the transition to adulthood. Demography, 22, 545–563.
Gottfredson, M. R., & Hirschi, T. (1990). A general theory of crime. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Graham, J., & Bowling, B. (1995). Young people and crime. London : Research Study 145, Home Office.
Hagan, J., & Palloni, A. (1990). The social reproduction of a criminal class in working class London, circa 1950–1980. American Journal of Sociology, 96, 265–299.
Harford, T. C., & Muthen, B. O. (2001). Alcohol use among college students: The effects of prior problem behaviors and change of residence. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 62, 306–312.
Haynie, D. L., & Osgood, D. W. (2005). Reconsidering peers and delinquency: How do peers matter? Social Forces, 84, 1109–1130.
Hindelang, M. J., Hirschi, T., & Weis, J. G. (1979). Correlates of delinquency: The illusion of discrepancy between self-report and official measures. American Sociological Review, 44, 995–1014.
Hirschi, T., & Gottfredson, M. (1983). Age and the explanation of crime. American Journal of Sociology, 89, 552–584.
Hirschi, T., & Gottfredson, M. (1985). All wise after the fact learning theory, again: Reply to Baldwin. American Journal of Sociology, 90, 1330–1333.
Horney, J., Osgood, D. W., & Marshall, I. H. (1995). Criminal careers in the short-term: Intraindividual variability in crime and its relation to local life circumstances. American Sociological Review, 60, 655–673.
Hotz, V. J., McElroy, S. W., & Sanders, S. G. (2005). Teenage childbearing and its life cycle consequences: Exploiting a natural experiment. Journal of Human Resources, 40, 683–715.
Johnson, D. R. (1995). Alternative methods for the quantitative analysis of panel data in family research: Pooled time-series methods. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 1065–1077.
Junger-Tas, J., & Marshall, I. H. (1999). The self-report methodology in crime research. Crime and Justice, 25, 291–367.
King, R., Massoglia, M., & MacMillan, R. (2007). The context of marriage and crime: Gender, the propensity to marry, and offending in early adulthood. Criminology, 45, 33–65.
Knight, B. J., & West, D. J. (1975). Temporary and continuing delinquency. British Journal of Criminology, 15, 43–50.
Laub, J. H. (1997). Patterns of criminal victimization in the United States. In R. C. Davis, A. J. Lurigio, & W. G. Skogan (Eds.), Victims of crime (pp. 9–26). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Laub, J. H., Nagin, D. S., & Sampson, R. J. (1998). Trajectories of change in criminal offending: Good marriages and the desistance process. American Sociological Review, 63, 225–238.
Laub, J. H., & Sampson, R. J. (2001). Understanding desistance from crime. Crime and Justice, 28, 1–69.
Laub, J. H., & Sampson, R. J. (2003). Shared beginnings, divergent lives: Delinquent boys to age 70. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lemert, E. M. (1972). Human deviance, social problems, and social control (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Macmillan, R., & Eliason, S. R. (2003). Characterizing the life course as role configurations and pathways. In J. T. Mortimer & M. J. Shanahan (Eds.), Handbook of the life course (pp. 529–554). New York: Kluwer.
Miller, J., & Lynam, D. (2001). Structural models of personality and their relation to antisocial behavior: A meta-analytic review. Criminology, 39, 765–798.
Newcomb, M. D., & Bentler, P. M. (1987). Changes in drug use from high school to young adulthood: Effects of living arrangement and current life pursuit. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 8, 221–246.
O’Connell, D. J. (2003). Investigating latent trait and life course theories as predictors of recidivism among an offender sample. Journal of Criminal Justice, 31, 455–467.
Osborn, S. G., & West, D. J. (1979). Marriage and delinquency: A postscript. British Journal of Criminology, 18, 254–256.
Osgood, D. W. (2005). Analyzing the impact of life events on criminal behavior. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Network for the Study of the Social Context of Pathways in Crime, Cambridge University.
Osgood, D. W., & Lee, H. (1993). Leisure activities, age, and adult roles across the lifespan. Society and Leisure, 16, 181–208.
Osgood, D. W., Ruth, G. R., Eccles, J. S., Jacobs, J. E., & Barber, B. L. (2005). Six paths through the transition to adulthood, their predictors and consequences. In R. A. Settersten, Jr., F. F. Furstenberg, Jr., & R. G. Rumbaut (Eds.), On the frontier of adulthood: Theory, research, and public policy (pp. 320–355). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Osgood, D.W., Wilson, J. K., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Johnston, L. D. (1996). Routine activities and individual deviant behavior. American Sociological Review, 61, 635–655.
Piquero, A. R., Brame, R., Mazerolle, P., & Haapanen, R. (2002). Crime in emerging adulthood. Criminology, 40, 137–169.
Piquero, A. R., MacDonald, J. M., & Parker, K. F. (2002). Race, local life circumstances, and criminal activity. Social Science Quarterly, 83, 654–670.
Quetelet, A. ([1833] 1984). Research on the propensity for crime at different ages. Translated with an introduction by Sawyer Sylvester. Cincinnati, OH: Anderson.
Rand, A. (1987). Transitional life events and desistance from delinquency and crime. In M. E. Wolfgang, T. P. Thornberry, & R. M. Figlio (Eds.), From boy to man, from delinquency to crime (pp. 134–162). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Raudenbush, S. W., & Bryk, A. S. (2002). Hierarchical linear models (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Rindfuss, R. R. (1991). The young adult years: Diversity, structural change, and fertility. Demography, 28, 493–512.
Rosenbaum, P. R., & Rubin, D. B. (1983). The central role of the propensity score in observational studies for causal effects. Biometrika, 70, 41–55.
Sampson, R. J., & Laub, J. H. (1990). Crime and deviance over the life course: The salience of adult social bonds. American Sociological Review, 55, 609–627.
Sampson, R. J., & Laub, J. H. (1993). Crime in the making: Pathways and turning points through life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Sampson, R. J., Laub, J. H., & Wimer, C. (2006). Does marriage reduce crime? A counterfactual approach to within-individual causal effects. Criminology, 44, 465–508.
Shanahan, M. J. (2000). Pathways to adulthood in changing societies: Variability and mechanisms in the life course perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 667–692.
Short, J. F., & Nye, F. I. (1957). Reported behavior as a criterion of deviant behavior. Social Problems, 2, 296–302.
Shover, N. (1996). Great pretenders: Pursuits and careers of persistent thieves. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Simons, R. L, Stewart, E., Gordon, L. C., & Elder, G. H. (2002). A test of life-course explanations for stability and change in antisocial behavior from adolescence to young adulthood. Criminology, 40, 401–434.
Stouthamer-Loeber, M., Wei, E., Loeber, R., & Masten, A. S. (2004). Desistance from persistent serious delinquency in the transition to adulthood. Development and Psychopathology, 16, 897–918.
Sutherland, E. H., & Cressey, D. R. (1955). Principles of criminology (5th ed.). Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott.
Tittle, C. R., & Meier, R. F. (1990). Specifying the SES/delinquency relationship. Criminology, 28, 271–299.
Uggen, C. (1999). Ex-offenders and the conformist alternative: A job quality model of work and crime. Social Problems, 46, 127–151.
Uggen, C. (2000). Work as a turning point in the life course of criminals: A duration model of age, employment, and recidivism. American Sociological Review, 65, 529–546.
Uggen, C., & Kruttschnitt, C. (1998). Crime in the breaking: Gender differences in desistance. Law and Society Review, 32, 339–366.
Uggen, C., & Wakefield, S. (this volume).What have we learned from longitudinal studies of work and crime?
Valliant, P. M., & Scanlan, P. (1996). Personality, living arrangements, and alcohol use by first year university students. Social Behavior and Personality, 24, 151–156.
Warr, M. (1998). Life-course transitions and desistance from crime. Criminology, 36, 183–216.
Winship, C., & Morgan, S. L. (1999). The estimation of causal effects from observational data. Annual Review of Sociology, 25, 659–707.
Wright, K. N., & Wright, K. E. (1992). Does getting married reduce the likelihood of criminality? A review of the literature. Federal Probation, 56, 50–56.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Siennick, S.E., Osgood, D.W. (2008). A Review of Research on the Impact on Crime of Transitions to Adult Roles. In: Liberman, A.M. (eds) The Long View of Crime: A Synthesis of Longitudinal Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-71165-2_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-71165-2_5
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-5752-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-71165-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)