Abstract
Longitudinal-experimental studies are follow-up surveys that include an experimental intervention. The main advantage of these surveys is that it is possible to study both the natural history of development and the impact of interventions in one research project. This chapter focusses on large-scale community surveys with repeated personal interviews with participants spanning at least 5 years. It reviews the advantages and problems of longitudinal surveys, randomized experiments, and longitudinal-experimental designs. To some extent, the advantages of one method compensate for the problems of the other. This chapter also reviews the advantages and problems of quasi-experimental analyses in longitudinal surveys. There have been many longitudinal-experimental studies in criminology in which persons who did or did not receive an intervention were followed up for several years; the most important of these are reviewed here. However, no criminological study has yet been completed that includes at least 3 years of personal contact with participants before and after an intervention. Such a study should be mounted.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Angrist JD (2006) Instrumental variables methods in experimental criminological research: what, why and how. J Exp Criminol 2:23–44
Barnett WS (1996) Lives in the balance: age-27 benefit-cost analysis of the high/scope Perry Preschool Program. High/Scope, Ypsilanti, MI
Belfield CR, Nores M, Barnett S, Schweinhart L (2006) The High/Scope Perry preschool program: cost-benefit analysis using data from the age-40 follow-up. J Hum Resour 51:162–190
Berntsen K, Christiansen KO (1965) A resocialization experiment with short-term offenders. In: Christiansen KO (ed) Scandinavian studies in criminology, vol. 1. Tavistock, London
Berrueta-Clement JR, Schweinhart LJ, Barnett WS, Epstein AS, Weikart DP (1984) Changed lives: the effects of the Perry Preschool Program on youths through age 19. High/Scope, Ypsilanti, MI
Blumstein A, Cohen J, Farrington DP (1988) Longitudinal and criminal career research: further clarifications. Criminology 26:57–74
Boisjoli R, Vitaro F, Lacourse E, Barker ED, Tremblay RE (2007) Impact and clinical significance of a preventive intervention for disruptive boys. Br J Psychiatry 191:415–419
Boruch RF (1997) Randomized experiments for planning and evaluation. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA
Bottcher J, Ezell ME (2005) Examining the effectiveness of boot camps: a randomized experiment with a long-term follow-up. J Res Crime Delinq 42:309–332
Campbell FA, Ramey CT, Pungello E, Sparling J, Miller-Johnson S (2002) Early childhood education: young adult outcomes from the Abercedarian project. Appl Dev Sci 6:42–57
Catalano RF, Haggerty KP, Fleming CB, Brewer DD, Gainey RD (2002) Children of substance-abusing parents: current findings from the Focus on Families project. In: McMahon RJ, Peters RD (eds) The effects of parental dysfunction on children. Kluwer/Plenum, New York, pp 179–204
Catalano RF, Mazza JJ, Harachi TW, Abbott RD, Haggerty KP, Fleming CB (2003) Raising healthy children through enhancing social development in elementary school: results after 1.5 years. J School Psychol 41:143–164
Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group (2002) Evaluation of the first 3 years of the Fast Track Prevention Trial with children at high risk for adolescent conduct problems. J Abnorm Child Psychol 30:19–35
Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group (2004) The effects of the Fast Track program on serious problem outcomes at the end of elementary school. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 33:650–661
Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group (2007) Fast Track randomized controlled trial to prevent externalizing psychiatric disorders: findings from grades 3 to 9. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 46:1250–1262
Cook TD, Payne MR (2002) Objecting to the objections to using random assignment in educational research. In: Mosteller F, Boruch RF (eds) Evidence matters. Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC, pp 150–178
Eckenrode J, Zielinski D, Smith E, Marcynyszyn LA, Henderson CA, Kitzman H, Cole R, Powers J, Olds DL (2001) Child maltreatment and the early onset of problem behaviors: can a program of nurse home visitation break the link? Dev Psychopathol 13:873–890
Eisner M, Ribeaud D (2005) A randomized field experiment to prevent violence: the Zurich Intervention and Prevention Project at Schools, ZIPPS. Eur J Crime, Crim Law Crim Justice 13:27–43
Eisner M, Ribeaud D (2007) Conducting a criminological survey in a culturally diverse context: lessons from the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children. Eur J Criminol 4:271–298
Empey LT, Erickson ML (1972) The Provo experiment: evaluating community control of delinquency. D.C. Heath, Lexington, MA
Farrington DP (1977) The effects of public labelling. Br J Criminol 17:112–125
Farrington DP (1979a) Experiments on deviance with special reference to dishonesty. In: Berkowitz L (ed) Advances in experimental social psychology, vol. 12. Academic Press, New York, pp 207–252
Farrington DP (1979b) Longitudinal research on crime and delinquency. In: Morris N, Tonry M (eds) Crime and justice, vol. 1. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 289–348
Farrington DP (1983) Randomized experiments on crime and justice. In: Morris N, Tonry M (eds) Crime and justice, vol. 4. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 257–308
Farrington DP (1988) Studying changes within individuals: the causes of offending. In: Rutter M (ed) Studies of psychosocial risk: the power of longitudinal data. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 158–183
Farrington DP (1992) The need for longitudinal-experimental research on offending and antisocial behavior. In: McCord J, Tremblay RE (eds) Preventing antisocial behavior: interventions from birth through adolescence. Guilford, New York, pp 353–376
Farrington DP (2003a) Developmental and life-course criminology: key theoretical and empirical issues. Criminology 41:221–255
Farrington DP (2003b) Key results from the first 40 years of the Cambridge study in delinquent development. In: Thornberry TP, Krohn MD (eds) Taking stock of delinquency: an overview of findings from the contemporary longitudinal studies. Kluwer/Plenum, New York, pp 137–183
Farrington DP (2003c) Methodological quality standards for evaluation research. Ann Am Acad Pol Soc Sci 587: 49–68
Farrington DP (2006) Key longitudinal-experimental studies in criminology. J Exp Criminol 2:121–141
Farrington DP (2008) Criminology as an experimental science. In: Horne C, Lovaglia M (eds) Experiments in criminology and law. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD, pp 175–179
Farrington DP, Jolliffe D (2002) A feasibility study into using a randomized controlled trial to evaluate treatment pilots at HMP Whitemoor. London Home Office (Online Report 14/02; see www.homeoffice.gov.uk)
Farrington DP, Pulkkinen L (2009) Introduction: the unusualness and contribution of life span longitudinal studies of aggressive and criminal behavior. Aggress Behav 35:115–116
Farrington DP, Welsh BC (2005) Randomized experiments in criminology: what have we learned in the last two decades? J Exp Criminol 1:9–38
Farrington DP, Welsh BC (2006) A half-century of randomized experiments on crime and justice. In Tonry M (ed) Crime and justice, vol. 34. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 55–132
Farrington DP, Welsh BC (2007) Saving children from a life of crime: early risk factors and effective interventions. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Farrington DP, West DJ (1995) Effects of marriage, separation and children on offending by adult males. In: Hagan J (ed) Current perspectives on aging and the life cycle, vol. 4: delinquency and disrepute in the life course. JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, pp 249–281
Farrington DP, Ohlin LE, Wilson JQ (1986a) Understanding and controlling crime: toward a new research strategy. Springer, New York
Farrington DP, Gallagher B, Morley L, St Ledger RJ, West DJ (1986b) Unemployment, school leaving, and crime. Br J Criminol 26:335–356
Farrington DP, Gallagher B, Morley L, St Ledger RJ, West DJ (1990) Minimizing attrition in longitudinal research: methods of tracing and securing cooperation in a 24-year follow-up study. In: Magnusson D, Bergman LR (eds) Data quality in longitudinal research. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 122–147
Farrington DP, Loeber R, Yin Y, Anderson SJ (2002) Are within-individual causes of delinquency the same as between-individual causes? Crim Behav Ment Health 12:53–68
Farrington DP, Coid JW, Harnett L, Jolliffe D, Soteriou N, Turner R, West DJ (2006) Criminal careers up to age 50 and life success up to age 48: new findings from the Cambridge study in delinquent development. Home Office (Research Study No. 299), London
Gibson CL,Morris, SZ, Beaver KM (2009) Secondary exposure to violence during childhood and adolescence: does neighborhood context matter? Justice Q 26:30–57
Gordon RA, Lahey BB, Kawai E, Loeber R, Stouthamer-Loeber M, Farrington DP (2004) Antisocial behavior and youth gang membership: selection and socialization. Criminology 42:55–87
Harachi TW, Abbott RD, Catalano RF, Haggerty KP, Fleming CB (1999) Opening the black box: using process evaluation measures to assess implementation and theory building. Am J Community Psychol 27:711–731
Hawkins JD, Smith BH, Hill KG, Kosterman R, Catalano RF, Abbott RD (2003) Understanding and preventing crime and violence: findings from the Seattle Social Development Project. In: Thornberry TP, Krohn MD (eds) Taking stock of delinquency: an overview of findings from contemporary longitudinal studies. Kluwer/Plenum, New York, pp 255–312
Hawkins JD, Kosterman R, Catalano RF, Hill KG, Abbott RD (2005) Promoting positive adult functioning through social development intervention in childhood. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 159:25–31
Jesness CF (1971) Comparative effectiveness of two institutional treatment programs for delinquents. Child Care Q 1:119–130
Kirk DS (2006) Examining the divergence across self-report and official data sources on inferences about the adolescent life-course of crime. J Quant Criminol 22:107–129
Kling JR, Ludwig J, Katz LF (2005) Neighborhood effects on crime for female and male youth: evidence from a randomized housing voucher experiment. Q J Econ 120:87–130
Lacourse E, Cote S, Nagin DS, Vitaro F, Brendgen M, Tremblay RE (2002) A longitudinal-experimental approach to testing theories of antisocial behavior development. Dev Psychopathol 14:909–924
Laub JH, Sampson RJ (2003) Shared beginnings, divergent lives: delinquent boys to age 70. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Loeber R, Farrington DP (1994) Problems and solutions in longitudinal and experimental treatment studies of child psychopathology and delinquency. J Consult Clin Psychol 62:887–900
Loeber R, Farrington DP (1995) Longitudinal approaches in epidemiological research on conduct problems. In: Verhulst FC, Koot HM (eds) The epidemiology of child and adolescent psychopathology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 309–336
Loeber R, Farrington DP (1997) Strategies and yields of longitudinal studies on antisocial behavior. In: Stoff DN, Breiling J, Maser JD (eds) Handbook of antisocial behavior. Wiley, New York, pp 125–139
Loeber R, Farrington DP (2008) Advancing knowledge about causes in longitudinal studies: Experimental and quasi-experimental methods. In: Liberman A (ed) The long view of crime: a synthesis of longitudinal research. Springer, New York, pp 257–279
Loeber R, Farrington DP, Stouthamer-Loeber M, White HR (2008) Violence and serious theft: development and prediction from childhood to adulthood. Routledge, New York
Lösel F, Beelman A (2003) Early developmental prevention of aggression and delinquency. In: Dunkel F, Drenkhahn K (eds) Youth violence: new patterns and local responses. Forum Verlag, Monchengladbach, Germany
Mason WA, Kosterman R, Hawkins JD, Haggerty KP, Spoth RL (2003) Reducing adolescents’ growth in substance use and delinquency: randomized trial effects of a parent-training prevention intervention. Prev Sci 4:203–212
McCarton CM, Brooks-Gunn J, Wallace IF, Bauer CR, Bennett FC, Bernbaum JC, Broyles RS, Casey PH, McCormick MC, Scott DT, Tyson J, Tonascia J, Meinert CL (1997) Results at age 8 years of early intervention for low-birth-weight premature infants. J Am Med Assoc 277:126–132
McCord J (1978) A thirty-year follow-up of treatment effects. Am Psychol 33:284–289
McCord J (1979) Some child-rearing antecedents of criminal behavior in adult men. J Personality and Social Psychology 37:1477–1486
McCord J (1982) A longitudinal view of the relationship between paternal absence and crime. In: Gunn J, Farrington DP (eds) Abnormal offenders, delinquency, and the criminal justice system. Wiley, Chichester, pp 113–128
McCord J (1990) Crime in moral and social contexts – the American Society of Criminology 1989 Presidential Address. Criminology 28:1–26
McCord J (2003) Cures that harm: unanticipated outcomes of crime prevention programs. Ann Am Acad Pol Soc Sci 587:16–30
Metropolitan Area Child Study Research Group (2002) A cognitive-ecological approach to preventing aggression in urban settings: initial outcomes for high-risk children. J Consult Clin Psychol 70:179–194
Mills PE, Cole KN, Jenkins JR, Dale PS (2002) Early exposure to direct instruction and subsequent juvenile delinquency: a prospective examination. Except Child 69:85–96
Murray J, Farrington DP, Eisner MP (2009) Drawing conclusions about causes from systematic reviews of risk factors: the Cambridge Quality Checklists. J Exp Criminol 5:1–23
Olds DL, Eckenrode J, Henderson CR, Kitzman H, Powers J, Cole R, Sidora K, Morris P, Pettitt LM, Luckey DW (1997) Long-term effects of home visitation on maternal life course and child abuse and neglect. J Am Med Assoc 278:637–643
Olds DL, Henderson CR, Cole R, Eckenrode J, Kitzman H, Luckey D, Pettitt L, Sidora K, Morris P, Powers J (1998) Long-term effects of nurse home visitation on children’s criminal and antisocial behavior: 15-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial. J Am Med Assoc 280:1238–1244
Olds DL, Kitzman H, Cole R, Robinson J, Sidora K, Luckey DW, Henderson CR, Hanks C, Bondy J, Holmberg J (2004) Effects of nurse home visiting on maternal life course and child development: age 6 follow-up results of a randomized trial. Pediatrics 114:1550–1559
Ortmann R (2000) The effectiveness of social therapy in prison: a randomized experiment. Crime Delinq 46:214–232
Petras H, Kellam SG, Brown CH, Muthen BO, Ialongo NS, Poduska JM (2008) Developmental epidemiological courses leading to antisocial personality disorder and violent and criminal behavior: effects by young adulthood of a universal preventive intervention in first and second grade classrooms. Drug Alcohol Depend 95S:S45–S59
Raine A, Mellingen K, Liu J, Venables PH, Mednick SA (2003) Effects of environmental enrichment at ages 3–5 years on schizotypal personality and antisocial behavior at ages 17 and 23 years. Am J Psychiatry 160:1627–1635
Reynolds AJ, Ou S-R, Topitzes JW (2004) Paths of effects of early childhood intervention on educational attainment and delinquency: a confirmatory analysis of the Chicago Child-Parent Centers. Child Dev 75:1299–1328
Robins LN (1966) Deviant children grown up. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, MD
Robins LN (1992) The role of prevention experiments in discovering causes of children’s antisocial behavior. In: McCord J, Tremblay RE (eds) Preventing antisocial behavior: interventions from birth through adolescence. Guilford, New York, pp 3–18
Sampson RJ, Sharkey P (2008) Neighborhood selection and the social reproduction of concentrated racial poverty. Demography 45:1–29
Sanders MR, Markie-Dadds C, Tully LA, Bor W (2000) The Triple P-Positive Parenting Program: a comparison of enhanced, standard and self-directed behavioral family intervention for parents of children with early onset conduct problems. J Consult Clin Psychol 68:624–640
Schaeffer CM, Borduin CM (2005) Long-term follow-up to a randomized clinical trial of multisystemic therapy with serious and violent juvenile offenders. J Consult Clin Psychol 73:445–453
Schwartz D, Flamant R, Lelouch J (1980) Clinical trials. Academic Press, London
Schweinhart LJ, Weikart DP (1980) Young children grow up: the effects of the Perry Preschool Program on youths through age 15. High/Scope, Ypsilanti, MI
Schweinhart LJ, Barnes HV, Weikart DP (1993) Significant benefits: the High/Scope Perry Preschool Study through age 27. High/Scope, Ypsilanti, MI
Schweinhart LJ, Montie J, Zongping X, Barnett WS, Belfield CR, Nores M (2005) Lifetime effects: the High/Scope Perry Preschool Study through age 40. High/Scope, Ypsilanti, MI
Shadish WR, Cook TD, Campbell DT (2002) Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal influence. Houghton-Mifflin, Boston
Theobald D, Farrington DP (2009) Effects of getting married on offending: results from a prospective longitudinal survey of males. Eur J Criminol 6:496–516
hornberry TP (1989) Panel effects and the use of self-reported measures of delinquency in longitudinal studies. In: Klein MW (ed) Cross-national research in self-reported crime and delinquency. Kluwer, Dordrecht, Netherlands, pp 347–369
Tonry M, Ohlin LE, Farrington DP (1991) Human development and criminal behavior: new ways of advancing knowledge. Springer, New York
Tremblay RE, Pagani-Kurtz L, Mâsse LC, Vitaro F, Pihl RO (1995) A bimodal preventive intervention for disruptive kindergarten boys: its impact through mid-adolescence. J Consult Clin Psychol 63:560–568
Tremblay RE, Mâsse LC, Pagani L, Vitaro F (1996) From childhood physical aggression to adolescent maladjustment: the Montreal prevention experiment. In: Peters RD, McMahon RJ (eds) Preventing childhood disorders, substance use, and delinquency. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp 268–298
Van Kammen WB, Loeber R (1994) Are fluctuations in delinquent activities related to the onset and offset of juvenile illegal drug use and drug dealing? J Drug Issues 24:9–24
Verthein U, Köhler T (1997) The correlation between everyday stress and angina pectoris: a longitudinal study. J Psychosom Res 43:241–245
Vitaro F, Brendgen M, Tremblay RE (2001) Preventive intervention: assessing its effects on the trajectories of delinquency and testing for mediational processes. Appl Dev Sci 5:201–213
Weisburd D, Lum CM, Petrosino A (2001) Does research design affect study outcomes in criminal justice? Ann Am Acad Pol Soc Sci 578:50–70
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Farrington, D.P., Loeber, R., Welsh, B.C. (2010). Longitudinal-Experimental Studies. In: Piquero, A., Weisburd, D. (eds) Handbook of Quantitative Criminology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-77650-7_24
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-77650-7_24
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-77649-1
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-77650-7
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)