Criminal Behaviour over the life course
Lecture 1: Introduction
Adolescents and young adults commit disproportionate amount of crime, victims are
also young adults
Age-crime curve: graph that shows how crime develops over age (peak in
adolescence then it goes down again)
→ youth accounts for about 20% of crime
→ High- + medium-persistence group: about 1% of the total population but accounts
for 63% of all violent crime convictions
Hirschi & Gottfredson: age-crime curve: crime declines with age (maturation):
invariant, consistent explanations across age, difference in degree
Why does crime decline with age?
- Changes in social roles and contexts
→ age crime curve depends on the type of crime
→ sex differences also play a role
Life course research
Between-individual differences vs within-individual differences:
- Between: different people and how criminal behaviour is different between
them
- Within: an individual’s crime rates at different moments
Life course concepts:
- Trajectories: specific group behaviour, events and when you start doing
them, for example: educational trajectory or when you start drinking
- Transitions: a change in your trajectory, for example going to uni
- Turning points: major change or the end of a trajectory, for example
graduating uni and starting a job
- Age effects: behaviour changes when people get older, rate of crime over age
, - Period effects: an effect of the time right now, for example covid had a direct
effect on everyone at the time
- Cohort effects: differences in when people were born, average per group
Life course research:
1. Social-historical time and place
When and where you are born and live matters: birth cohort, historical
context, social change (covid reduced crime, USA health care is too
expensive so you can’t heal)
2. Human agency
The capacity to exercise control over our lives, you make intentional choices
within societal constraints, people have different levels of controlling decisions
3. Linked lives
Individuals are linked with each other, we do things because of people around
us, for example kids with parents in jail
4. Timing
The age at which events occur affects trajectories and transitions, if your older
it could have less of an impact, for example being pregnant
→ Stage of development
→ Social norms
Key terms:
Cumulative continuity (of disadvantage): events have a causal or snowball effect,
they have an effect on your future, early arrest could lead to more or less crime
Self-selection: individual traits explain behaviour, people have different traits and
different self-control therefore different behaviour
Literature week 1:
Benson: Crime and the life course
Repetition of the four dimensions of life course research:
1. Time and place
2. Linked lives
3. Human agency
, 4. Timing in lives
But it also looks at the four dimensions of the criminal career:
Criminal career: longitudinal sequence of of crimes = a trajectory:
1. Participation: is the person involved in crime
2. Frequency: how often is the person involved in crime
3. Seriousness: how bad are the crimes and are they getting worse over time
4. Duration: how long does the whole trajectory of criminal behaviour last
Related theoretical issues:
- Cumulative continuity: behaviour influences later behaviour, can lead to
cumulative disadvantage
- Self-selection: individuals select experiences consistent with internal traits,
antisocial child → antisocial adult
- Ontogenetic fallacy: attributing outcomes solely to unfolding personality traits,
ignores interactions traits and environment
- Cohorts and age: social age: expectations at different ages (right time for
transitions)
Lecture 2: Life course theories
What is a social mechanism: provides chain of causal links between explanans and
explanandum (x and y relationship)
No single theoretical paradigm: biological, low self-control, informal social control …
Theoretical frameworks:
1. Static theories
2. Dynamic theories
3. Typological theories
1. Static theories:
Population is heterogeneous, traits/dispositions explain behaviour
Variation in traits → variation in behaviour (relies solely on traits)
Gottfredson & Hirschi: General theory of crime:
- Theory of low self-control: self-control can’t be changed and is stable
(people always stay in the same category of self-control)
Lecture 1: Introduction
Adolescents and young adults commit disproportionate amount of crime, victims are
also young adults
Age-crime curve: graph that shows how crime develops over age (peak in
adolescence then it goes down again)
→ youth accounts for about 20% of crime
→ High- + medium-persistence group: about 1% of the total population but accounts
for 63% of all violent crime convictions
Hirschi & Gottfredson: age-crime curve: crime declines with age (maturation):
invariant, consistent explanations across age, difference in degree
Why does crime decline with age?
- Changes in social roles and contexts
→ age crime curve depends on the type of crime
→ sex differences also play a role
Life course research
Between-individual differences vs within-individual differences:
- Between: different people and how criminal behaviour is different between
them
- Within: an individual’s crime rates at different moments
Life course concepts:
- Trajectories: specific group behaviour, events and when you start doing
them, for example: educational trajectory or when you start drinking
- Transitions: a change in your trajectory, for example going to uni
- Turning points: major change or the end of a trajectory, for example
graduating uni and starting a job
- Age effects: behaviour changes when people get older, rate of crime over age
, - Period effects: an effect of the time right now, for example covid had a direct
effect on everyone at the time
- Cohort effects: differences in when people were born, average per group
Life course research:
1. Social-historical time and place
When and where you are born and live matters: birth cohort, historical
context, social change (covid reduced crime, USA health care is too
expensive so you can’t heal)
2. Human agency
The capacity to exercise control over our lives, you make intentional choices
within societal constraints, people have different levels of controlling decisions
3. Linked lives
Individuals are linked with each other, we do things because of people around
us, for example kids with parents in jail
4. Timing
The age at which events occur affects trajectories and transitions, if your older
it could have less of an impact, for example being pregnant
→ Stage of development
→ Social norms
Key terms:
Cumulative continuity (of disadvantage): events have a causal or snowball effect,
they have an effect on your future, early arrest could lead to more or less crime
Self-selection: individual traits explain behaviour, people have different traits and
different self-control therefore different behaviour
Literature week 1:
Benson: Crime and the life course
Repetition of the four dimensions of life course research:
1. Time and place
2. Linked lives
3. Human agency
, 4. Timing in lives
But it also looks at the four dimensions of the criminal career:
Criminal career: longitudinal sequence of of crimes = a trajectory:
1. Participation: is the person involved in crime
2. Frequency: how often is the person involved in crime
3. Seriousness: how bad are the crimes and are they getting worse over time
4. Duration: how long does the whole trajectory of criminal behaviour last
Related theoretical issues:
- Cumulative continuity: behaviour influences later behaviour, can lead to
cumulative disadvantage
- Self-selection: individuals select experiences consistent with internal traits,
antisocial child → antisocial adult
- Ontogenetic fallacy: attributing outcomes solely to unfolding personality traits,
ignores interactions traits and environment
- Cohorts and age: social age: expectations at different ages (right time for
transitions)
Lecture 2: Life course theories
What is a social mechanism: provides chain of causal links between explanans and
explanandum (x and y relationship)
No single theoretical paradigm: biological, low self-control, informal social control …
Theoretical frameworks:
1. Static theories
2. Dynamic theories
3. Typological theories
1. Static theories:
Population is heterogeneous, traits/dispositions explain behaviour
Variation in traits → variation in behaviour (relies solely on traits)
Gottfredson & Hirschi: General theory of crime:
- Theory of low self-control: self-control can’t be changed and is stable
(people always stay in the same category of self-control)
