A Life Course Perspective on Criminal Continuity and Change: Exploring the Roles of Structural and Family of Origin Factors

• In Event: Structure, Context, and Choice: Advancing Life-Course Criminology

Abstract

Prior life course explanations of stability and change in offending recognize that criminal behavior in adulthood results from a dynamic process, whereby antisociality/delinquency in childhood and adolescence fosters adult crime through the severance of adult social bonds. This work has traditionally attributed the unfolding difficulties encountered across multiple domains (e.g., school, peer groups, criminal justice system, labor market) to individuals’ early behavior and its negative consequences. Although researchers have directed attention to the role of larger social contexts, this has largely been to understand how the process of cumulative disadvantage may operate differently according to individuals’ location in the class structure. Yet beyond conditioning the effects of early behaviors on developmental trajectories, features of the broader socioeconomic and family context may produce a cascade of problems by channeling youths’ own developing ties to conventional networks. In the current investigation, we draw on longitudinal data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) to explore the extent to which early structural and family of origin factors constrain subsequent development, net of individuals’ own early behaviors. In particular, we examine linkages between structural disadvantage, early parental attitudes and behaviors, the individual’s developing networks and institutional ties, and a range of developmental outcomes.

Authors

• Jennifer Copp, Florida State University

• Peggy Giordano, Bowling Green State University

• Wendy Manning, Bowling Green State University

• Monica Longmore, Bowling Green State University