Sociological childhood trajectories

• In Event: EDLC: capita selecta

Abstract

Building on insights provided by developmental criminology but augmenting them with the sociological perspective of life-course criminology, and based on data from the CRIMLA project, this paper underscores the importance of social factors and environments in shaping childhood trajectories and beyond. A broad spectrum of childhoods exists among CRIMLA research participants, with as many trajectories as lives. To better understand this complexity, we constructed ideal types that allowed us to group multiple distinct trajectories into clusters of similar courses (see van Onna et al., 2014). Our qualitative data indicated four ideal-type trajectories during childhood. These types have economic capital and social control as axes.
1. Forsaken (scarcity and neglect): people on this trajectory, such as Alice, have few economic resources, and their support network is either non-existent or violent in nature.
2. Socially resilient (scarcity and support): this trajectory comprises children whose guardians were economically poor but had a social network and tried to protect them and instil pro-social values in them.
3. Hollow support (sufficiency and neglect): includes children who had their fundamental material needs covered but grew up in a milieu of neglect, victimisation, and trauma.
4. Nurtured (sufficiency and support): those who fall into this trajectory, like Emily, have their material needs met, and their guardians provide adequate rearing and care.

Authors

• David Rodriguez Goyes, University of Oslo

• Sveinung Sandberg, Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, University of Oslo