Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “Identifying and predicting criminal career profiles from adolescence to age 39”, by Kim, B. E.; Gilman, A. B.; Tan, K. P.; Kosterman, R.; Bailey, J. A.; Catalano, R. F. and Hawkins, J. D. (2020), in which authors, using data from a previous project, try to identify which factors influence the development of a criminal career, plus, how to prevent it.
Knowing risk and protection factors of the development of criminal careers, is a topic studied by criminologists with special interest due to its complexity.
Protecting young people from delinquency and its social and personal consequences is one of the ambitions of the criminal study.
Owing to the importance of knowing these factors, authors of this paper wonder three questions.
First, what are the profiles of offending behavior across developmental periods in different age spans between the ages of 12 and 39. In other words, authors are interested in knowing which is the criminal profile in adolescence, in early adulthood and in middle adulthood.
For instance, and according to previous studies, most adolescents experiment with risk-taking behaviors and grow out of problem behaviors as they get older. But, on the other hand, these behaviors might last until adulthood.
One of the other questions authors ask, is how do the profiles based on self-reported data compare to official court records.
This study is carried out with information from two resources. On one hand, from self-reported data proportionated by the participants. On the other hand, from official court information; for example, criminal records.
Previous works have pointed out that self-reported data is an unreliable method to gather information and many studies have relied only on official records.
Therefore, authors decide to use information that comes from both resources, in order to check if self-reported data is coherent with official court records and, so, a reliable method.
The last question is what early life risk or protective/promotive factors predict group membership in identified criminal career profiles.
The data used in this study come from a previous project in which a total of 808 adolescents and their families participated.
The participants and their parents were surveyed annually at age 11, 16, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 35 and 39. The surveys were interviews, so these people could freely speak about their experiences. These would be the self-reported data we have already mentioned.
Moreover, official crime records were gathered about the criminal careers of the participants (if they existed).
After that, information was categorized, obtaining three different types of life phases: adolescence, early adulthood and middle adulthood.
Besides, a classification of the registered offending was made. There were low severity offending (stealing something worth less than five dollars), moderate (hitting someone with the idea of hurting them or stealing something worth less than fifty dollars) and serious (using weapons or force to get money, selling drugs or stealing something worth more than fifty dollars).
Obtained results were very interesting.
Four profiles appeared: normative/nonoffending (35,6%), adolescence-limited (33,2%), adult desister (18,3%) and life-course-persisting (12,9%).
Individuals in the life-course-persistent profile, showed the highest percentage of serious offending in their official records compared to the other profiles.
A positive familiar and scholar environment is related to lower levels of participation in crime.
Plus, higher levels of antisocial beliefs are associated with adolescent offenders. The same happens if they have friends with this kind of beliefs.
Therefore, there is an answer for the first question authors made. For instance, individuals in the life-course-persistent offending profile displayed offending behaviors in adolescence and persisted in moderate to serious offences in early and middle adulthood.
A small portion of individuals in the normative/nonoffending profile reportedly engaged in minor and moderate offences during adolescence but indicated little to no offending behaviors in adulthood.
Regarding the second question, we can assure that self-reported data offers the same information as official court reports, and so, we could rely on the former.
When it comes about the third question, about risk and protective factors, obtained information is more extense.
For instance, authors found that having more antisocial peers in early life consistently predicted a significantly greater likelihood of membership in the three criminal career profiles compared to the normative/nonoffending profile.
Also, individuals in the life-course-persistent profile exhibited significantly higher levels of antisocial beliefs in school.
Moreover, individuals in the adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent profiles, had significantly higher levels of internalizing problems in school compared to those in the normative/nonoffending ones.
Authors refer that prevention efforts should focus on increasing prosocial peer networks within schools and help young people engage with positive adults who can foster prosocial rather than antisocial beliefs.
Of course, attention should be paid to keep a positive familiar and scholar environment.
This study has some limitations. Data collection occurred approximately every three years, and some information might be lost because of that. Moreover, questions were not the same in every interview.
To sum up, authors point out the need of delve into this topic due to the huge number of factors that influence the development of a criminal career.
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