Identifying Late-Bloomers and Examining Early Characteristics That Account for Why They Delay the Onset of Offending

• In Event: Methodological Advancements to Studying Crime and Development

Abstract

Developmental, life-course studies have demonstrated a substantial degree of heterogeneity in delinquent careers with respect to the major parameters of the criminal career perspective. For example, while the population age-crime curve indicates that the onset of delinquency is most common in early to middle adolescence, many delinquent careers begin “off-time”, either early (during childhood), or late (during late adolescence and beyond). The present study is concerned with the latter phenomenon, offenders whose delinquent careers emerge and expand after the age-normative period of middle adolescence. We refer to them as “late bloomers”. In particular, we present a conceptual definition of late-bloomers and a discussion of how semi-parametric group based modeling techniques can identify them, if they exist. We also examine how they differ from other types of offenders, especially non- and very low-level offenders on the one hand, as well as chronic, persistent offenders, on the other hand, in terms of earlier individual, family, school, peer, and neighborhood characteristics. A fuller understanding of late-bloomers is important theoretically, as their existence is a point of divergence between life-course and typological theories, as well as practically, as previous studies suggest that their adult careers are both serious and prolonged.

Authors

• Terence P Thornberry, University of Maryland

• Mauri Matsuda, Portland State University

• Marvin D Krohn, University of Florida