Scaling up from convictions to self-reports

• In Event: Advancing Knowledge about Delinquency and Justice

Abstract

This paper compares convictions and self-reported offending of 506 boys in the oldest cohort of the Pittsburgh Youth Study. It reports scaling-up factors for serious and moderate violence and theft, at four different ages. Overall, there were 9 self-reported offenses for every conviction, and this increased steadily from 7.8 at age 13-15 to 13.7 at age 22-24. The percentage of boys convicted increased from 14% of those who admitted the fewest offenses to 73% of those who admitted the most offenses. Policy implications are drawn from these results about the efficiency of the criminal justice system and about the effectiveness of intervention programs and cost-benefit analyses.

Authors

• Delphine Theobald, King's College London

• David Philip Farrington, Cambridge University

• Rolf Loeber, University of Pittsburgh

• Dustin Pardini, University of Pittsburgh