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THE ONSET AND PERSISTENCE OF OFFENDING *
Author(s) -
NAGINO DANIEL S.,
FARRINGTON DAVID P.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
criminology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.467
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1745-9125
pISSN - 0011-1384
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1992.tb01114.x
Subject(s) - persistence (discontinuity) , covariate , continuation , psychology , age of onset , linkage (software) , association (psychology) , demography , developmental psychology , medicine , econometrics , biology , economics , genetics , disease , sociology , geotechnical engineering , computer science , engineering , gene , programming language , psychotherapist , pathology
This paper assesses the need for and focus of developmental theories of crime by analyzing three questions: (1) whether age of onset of criminal behavior has a causal impact on subsequent behavior, (2) whether the determinants of onset vary, at least in part, with age, and (3) whether the determinants of onset and continuation of offending differ in some respects. The inverse association between age of onset and persistence of offending is found to be entirely attributable to time‐stable individual differences and, thus, is not attributable to a causal linkage. However, evidence is found of the covariates of onset changing with age and differences in the covariates of onset and of the continuation of offending.