Offending Trajectories Among Native‐Born and Foreign‐Born Hispanics to Late Middle Age

Research on crime over the life‐course has made considerable progress in the last several decades. Despite this growth, significantly less attention has been devoted to longitudinal examinations of H ispanic populations beyond one phase of the life‐course, and/or examining differences between native‐born and foreign‐born H ispanics. Recognizing these limitations, this study offers an investigation of H ispanics in the U nited S tates focusing on offending and its relationship to immigration status. Using arrest data from a cohort of 375 H ispanic males from ages 18 to 50, trajectory analysis revealed four unique offending trajectories: very low‐rate offenders, high‐rate late‐onset escalators, initially high‐rate desisters, and high‐rate chronic offenders. Multivariate regression models demonstrated that H ispanic immigrants were significantly less likely to be initially high‐rate desisters or high‐rate chronic offenders compared with their native‐born counterparts, yet unmarried H ispanics were significantly more likely to be high‐rate late‐onset escalators. Study limitations and implications are also discussed.