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EXPLAINING CRIME OVER THE LIFE COURSE . . . AND ALL POINTS IN BETWEEN JOHN H. LAUB & ROBERT J. SAMPSON, SHARED BEGINNINGS, DIVERGENT LIVES: DELINQUENT BOYS To AGE 70 (Harvard University Press 2003). 338 pp.
INTRODUCTION
Understanding the longitudinal patterning of criminal activity has occupied a central spoke in the wheel of criminological investigation. Specifically, understanding the onset, continuance, and desistance associated with crime over the life course has been studied in one fashion or another, qualitatively or quantitatively, since the mid- to late-19th century.1 Classic birth cohorts studied in the middle to latter part of the 20th century,2 and reviews of the literature surrounding the relationship between age and crime,3 continue to demonstrate the theoretical and policy import of tracking crime over the life course. Much contemporary research attempts to document how involvement in crime evolves as people age, as they transition from adolescence into adulthood, and whether orderly patterns of continuity and change in the frequency, seriousness, and diversity of offending activities are evident.4
Of course, in order to track the changes in criminal activity as individuals age, longitudinal data, which contain repeated observations of crime within persons over time, are necessary and are routinely received with a great deal of interest by the criminological community, especially since they bring the promise of increased knowledge about criminals and their crimes.5 Longitudinal data are necessary for making proper inferences about individual trajectories of stability and change,6 as well as how life events alter trajectories of criminal activity over the life course.7 In fact, if researchers are to more accurately chart the causes and correlates of criminal activity, they need an adequate description of these phenomena.8
Criminologists have brought much evidence to bear on the longitudinal patterning of criminal activity. In fact, evidence on the relationship between age and crime has emerged from numerous longitudinal studies throughout the world, involving birth cohort, general population, and offender-based samples. Prominent longitudinal studies in Montreal, Rochester, Pittsburgh, Denver, Philadelphia, Seattle, Racine, London, Dunedin, and Stockholm have generated a great deal of information about the natural history of offending.9
Recently, Professors Thornberry and Krohn have "taken stock" of the key findings emerging from many of the world's foremost contemporary longitudinal studies.10 Although there are some unique and important...