Delinquency Careers in Two Birth Cohorts

Delinquency in a Birth Cohort, published in 1972, was the first criminologi cal birth cohort study in the United States. Nils Christie, in Unge norske lovorertredere, had done the first such study as his dissertation at the University of Oslo in 1960. Professor Thorsten Sellin was the inspiration for the U.S. study. He could read Norwegian, and I could a little because I studied at the University of Oslo in my graduate years. Our interest in pursuing a birth cohort study in the United States was fostered by the encouragement of Saleem Shah who awarded us a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to begin our birth cohort studies at the University of Pennsylvania by investigating the delinquency of the 1945 cohort. We studied this group of 9,945 boys extensively through official criminal history and school records of their juvenile years. Subsequently, we followed up the cohort as adults using both adult arrest histories and an interview of a sample of the cohort. Our follow-up study was published as From Boy to Man, From Delinquen cy to Crime in 1987.

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Delinquency in a Birth Cohort, published in 1972, was the first criminologi­ cal birth cohort study in the United States. Nils Christie, in Unge norske lovorertredere, had done the first such study as his dissertation at the University of Oslo in 1960. Professor Thorsten Sellin was the inspiration for the U.S. study. He could read Norwegian, and I could a little because I studied at the University of Oslo in my graduate years. Our interest in pursuing a birth cohort study in the United States was fostered by the encouragement of Saleem Shah who awarded us a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to begin our birth cohort studies at the University of Pennsylvania by investigating the delinquency of the 1945 cohort. We studied this group of 9,945 boys extensively through official criminal history and school records of their juvenile years. Subsequently, we followed up the cohort as adults using both adult arrest histories and an interview of a sample of the cohort. Our follow-up study was published as From Boy to Man, From Delinquen­ cy to Crime in 1987.

Contenu

1. Introduction.- 2. Cohort Studies in Criminology.- The Recognized Need for Cohort Studies.- Previous Studies of a Cohort Character.- Subsequent Studies of a Cohort Character.- Why a New Birth Cohort Study?.- 3. Contemporary Issues in Longitudinal Research.- Criminal Careers Historically.- The Value of Longitudinal Research on Criminal Careers.- 4. The 1958 Birth Cohort Study.- Objectives.- Capturing the Cohort.- Collection of Police Data.- Measuring Delinquency.- Scaling the Gravity of Crime.- The Seriousness Scoring System.- Measuring Socioeconomic Status.- Background Data.- 5. The Prevalence of Delinquency.- Race and SES.- Background Variables.- 6. The Incidence of Delinquency.- Extent of Delinquency.- Severity of Delinquency.- 7. The Chronic Juvenile Offender.- Chronicity and Frequency of Delinquency.- Chronicity and Severity of Delinquency.- 8. Delinquent Recidivism: Static Probabilities.- The First Offense.- Rank Number of Offense.- 9. Delinquent Recidivism: Specialization and Escalation.- Offense Transition Probabilities: All Offenders.- Offense Transition Residuals: All Offenders.- Offense Transition Residuals: All Offender Recidivists.- Offense Transition Probabilities by Race.- Offense Transition Residuals by Race.- Offense Escalation: All Offenders.- 10. Age-at-Onset and Delinquency.- Age-at-Onset Percentages.- Age-at-Onset and Mean Number of Offenses.- Age-at-Onset and Offense Severity.- Age-at-Onset and Offense Types.- 11. Delinquency and Age-at-Offense.- Distribution of Offenses by Age.- Offense Rates by Age.- Offense Types by Age.- 12. Police and Court Dispositions.- Disposition Distributions.- Disposition Contingencies.- 13. Summary and Implications.- Summary of Results.- Implications.- References.