Emerging Adulthood and The Age-Crime Curve: Does Delaying Young Adulthood Delay Desistance?

• In Event: Gender Differences in Pathways to Offending

Abstract

Extended adolescence defines a life-course period delaying the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. Individuals who experience delayed entry into adulthood often fail to become entrenched in a career, get married, have children, or become financially stable until their late twenties. Historically, individuals have reached these milestones by their early twenties and developed strong social bonds related to these milestones. Typically, desistance also occurs at these ages. The age-crime curve has been theorized as a concrete phenomenon, with crime peaking in the late teens and desisting by age 24. Justification for desistance at these ages can be argued through age-graded social bonds. However, individuals experiencing extended adolescence would fail to achieve these bonds as early and would delay desistance. The present study uses BJS arrest estimates to examine the age-crime curve across cohorts and sex. Specifically, I focus on millennials compared to two prior generations. Results provide suggestive evidence that the age-crime curve of millennials differs from that of earlier cohorts. Desistance appears to occur more slowly for millennials and results appear to differ by sex and property or violent arrest type. An intersection of age-graded social bonds theory and extended adolescence is offered as a theoretical explanation.

Author

• Ty Miller, Purdue University