Abstract
Research on criminal careers has examined distinct longitudinal patterns of offending across unique trajectories of offenders and a recent study has linked the costs of criminal offending imposed by these unique trajectories, with a specific focus on chronic offenders. In this study, we use longitudinal data from the Second Philadelphia Birth Cohort Study to examine the extent to which the monetary costs of crime across distinct trajectories of crime vary across both gender and ethnicity. Results indicate that male adolescent-peaked and low and high-rate chronic offending impose substantial costs, and the average costs imposed on society by one male high-rate chronic offender is greater than $1.5 million. Although female chronic offending is rarer, these female offenders still impose greater than $750,000 in costs on average. African-American chronic-offending costs the most of any racial/ethnic trajectory group at greater than $1.6 million on average for each chronic offender. Hispanic chronic offending on average costs slightly more than $200,000, and low-rate White offending costs greater than $100,000 on average. Costs also appear to peak at different ages for males and females and for African-Americans, Hispanics, and Whites. Policy implications and study limitations are also discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Blumstein, A., Cohen, J., Roth, J. A., & Visher, C. A. (Eds.). (1986). Criminal careers and “career criminals”, Vol 1. Report of the panel on criminal careers, National Research Council. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences.
Chung, I., Hill, K. G., Hawkins, J. D., Gilchrist, L. D., & Nagin, D. S. (2002). Childhood predictors of offense trajectories. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 39, 60–90.
Cohen, M. (1998). The monetary value of saving a high risk youth. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 14, 5–33.
Cohen, M. A. (2005). The costs of crime and justice. New York, NY: Routledge.
Cohen, M. A. (2008). Valuing crime control benefits using stated preference approaches. In T. Dunworth (Ed.), Cost and benefits of crime. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.
Cohen, M. A., & Piquero, A. (2009). New evidence on the monetary value of saving a high-risk youth. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 25, 25–49.
Cohen, M. A., Rust, R. T., Steen, S., & Tidd, S. (2004). Willingness-to-pay for crime control programs. Criminology, 42, 86–106.
Cohen, M. A., Piquero, A., & Jennings, W.G. (2010). Studying the costs of crime across offender trajectories. Criminology & Public Policy, forthcoming.
Cote, S., Zoccolillo, M., Tremblay, R. E., Nagin, D. S., & Vitaro, F. (2001). Predicting girls’ conduct disorder in adolescence from childhood trajectories of disruptive behaviors. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 678–684.
Cote, S., Tremblay, R. E., Nagin, D. S., Zoccolillo, M., & Vitaro, F. (2002). The development of impulsivity, fearfulness, and helpfulness during childhood: patterns of consistency and change in the trajectories of boys and girls. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines, 43, 609–618.
D’Unger, A. V., Land, K. C., McCall, P. L., & Nagin, D. S. (1998). How many latent classes of delinquent/criminal careers? Results from mixed Poisson regression analyses. American Journal of Sociology, 103, 1593–1630.
D’Unger, A. V., Land, K. C., & McCall, P. L. (2002). Sex differences in age patterns of delinquent/criminal careers: results from Poisson latent class analyses of the Philadelphia Cohort Study. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 18, 349–375.
DeLisi, M., & Gatling, J. M. (2003). Who pays for a life of crime? An empirical assessment of the assorted victimization costs posed by career criminals. Criminal Justice Studies: A Critical Journal of Crime, Law and Society, 16, 283–293.
Farrington, D. P., & West, D. J. (1990). The Cambridge study in delinquent development: A prospective longitudinal survey of 411 males. In H. Kerner & G. Kaiser (Eds.), Criminality: Personality, behavior, and life history. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Fergusson, D. M., & Horwood, L. J. (2002). Male and female offending trajectories. Development and Psychopathology, 14, 159–177.
Glueck, S., & Glueck, E. (1950). Unraveling juvenile delinquency. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Glueck, S., & Glueck, E. (1968). Delinquents and nondelinquents in perspective. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Jones, B. L., Nagin, D. S., & Roeder, K. (2001). A SAS procedure based on mixture models for estimating developmental trajectories. Sociological Methods and Research, 29, 374–393.
Laub, J. H., & Sampson, R. J. (2003). Shared beginnings, divergent lives: Delinquent boys to age 70. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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.
Maldonado-Molina, M., Piquero, A. R., Jennings, W. G., Bird, H., & Canino, G. (2009). Trajectories of delinquency among Puerto Rican children and adolescents at two sites. Journal of Research in Crime & Delinquency, 46, 144–181.
McDermott, S., & Nagin, D. S. (1998). Same or different over time? In S. O. White (Ed.), Handbook of law and social science: Youth and justice. New York: Plenum Press.
Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Rutter, M., & Silva, P. A. (2001). Sex differences in antisocial behaviour: Conduct disorder, delinquency, and violence in the Dunedin Longitudinal Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nagin, D. S. (2005). Group-based modeling of development. Cambridge, MA: University of Harvard Press.
Nagin, D. S., & Land, K. C. (1993). Age, criminal careers, and population heterogeneity: specification and estimation of a nonparametric, mixed Poisson model. Criminology, 31, 327–362.
Nagin, D. S., Piquero, A. R., Scott, E., & Steinberg, L. (2006). Public preferences for rehabilitation versus incarceration of juvenile offenders: Evidence from a contingent valuation survey. Criminology & Public Policy 5, 627–652.
Piquero, A. R. (2008). Taking stock of developmental trajectories of criminal activity over the life course. In A. Liberman (Ed.), Longitudinal research on crime and delinquency. New York: Springer.
Piquero, A. R., Brame, R., Mazerolle, P., & Haapanen, R. (2002). Crime in emerging adulthood. Criminology, 40, 137–169.
Piquero, A. R., Farrington, D. P., & Blumstein, A. (2003). The criminal career paradigm. In M. Tonry (Ed.), Crime and justice: An annual review of research (Vol. 30). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Piquero, A. R., Brame, R., & Moffitt, T. E. (2005). Extending the study of continuity and change: gender differences in the linkage between adolescent and adult offending. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 21, 219–243.
Piquero, A. R., Farrington, D., & Blumstein, A. (2007). Key issues in criminal career research: New analyses from the Cambridge study in delinquent development. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sampson, R. J., & Laub, J. H. (1993). Crime in the making. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Shannon, L. W. (1988). Criminal career continuity: Its social context. New York: Human Sciences Press.
Shannon, L. W. (1991). Changing patterns of delinquency and crime: A longitudinal study in Racine. Boulder: Westview Press.
Tracy, P. E., & Kempf-Leonard, K. (1996). Continuity and discontinuity in criminal careers. New York: Plenum.
Tracy, P. E., Wolfgang, M. E., & Figlio, R. M. (1990). Delinquency careers in two birth cohorts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Tremblay, R. E., Mâsse, L. C., Kurtz, L., & Vitaro, F. (1996). From childhood physical aggression to adolescent maladjustment: The Montréal prevention experiment. In R. D. Peters & R. J. McMahon (Eds.), Preventing childhood disorders, substance abuse & delinquency (pp. 268–298). Sage: Thousand Oaks.
Welsh, B. C., Loeber, R., Stevens, B. R., Stouthamer-Loeber, M., Cohen, M. A., & Farrington, D. P. (2008). Costs of juvenile crime in urban areas: a longitudinal perspective. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 6, 3–27.
White, H. R., Nagin, D. S., Replogle, E., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (2004). Racial differences in trajectories of cigarette use. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 76, 219–227.
Wolfgang, M. E., Figlio, R. M., & Sellin, T. (1972). Delinquency in a birth cohort. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cohen, M.A., Piquero, A.R. & Jennings, W.G. Monetary Costs of Gender and Ethnicity Disaggregated Group-Based Offending. Am J Crim Just 35, 159–172 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-010-9071-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-010-9071-5