Criminal behavior during the life course
Extensive summary of the literature
Week 1 - Introduction
Article 1: The emergence and development of life course theory – Elder et al.
The life histories and future trajectories of individuals and groups were largely
neglected by early sociological research. By the mid-1920s however, the need for a
longitudinal approach to life history was emphasized. These early recommendations
anticipated the study of the life course later on.
In the 1950s, social scientists knew little about how people lived their lives from
childhood to old age, and even less about how their life pathways influenced the
course of development and aging, and still less about the importance of historical and
geographic contexts. Disruptive societal evens (e.g. the Great Depression WWII)
contributed to this neglect of life histories and trajectories.
At the onset of the 21st century, however, such life pathways are widely recognized
within the social and behavioral sciences as the life course.
a) The authors view the life course as a theoretical orientations – this view is
grounded in a contextualist perspective and emphasized the implications of
social pathways in historical time and place for human development and
aging.
b) Life course is different from life span, life history and life cycle.
- A life-span study is one that extends across a substantial portion of life,
particularly one that links behavior in two or more life stages.
- Life history – indicates the chronology of activities or events across the life
course.
- Life cycle – refers to the reproductive process from one generation to the next.
The contextual challenge
During the 1950s, sociological activities rarely dug deep into the complexities of life
and too often, existed in the timeless realm of the abstract. This perspective was
encouraged by the rapid diffusion of social surveys (wide breadth of topics with little
depth). Yet, this period was soon replaced by a virtual explosion of inquiry that
explored the continuity and change of human lives. There are 5 major trends that
contributed to this:
1) The maturation of early child development samples – pioneering psychologists
of the early 20th century launched key longitudinal studies of young people.
Many were extended into the adult years and beyond. These early studies,
originally modest in scope, lay the groundwork for longitudinal al study of life
history.
2) The rapidity of social change – these young people experienced the enormous
social change in the 20th century (two world wars, the women’s movement
etc.). These events had profound influences on life trajectories, both individual
, and age cohort. New interest evolved in the ways that individual lives are
linked to social change.
3) Changes in the composition of the U.S. and other populations – as the first
‘new nation’, the US served as a crucible for the study of diversity. The racial
and ethnic diversity of the US, growing with time, mirrors other forms of
diversity that are entrenched in American society (socioeconomic, gender).
4) The changing age structure of society – this has undergone a major
transformation due to increasing longevity and declining fertility and mortality.
Rapid growth of the oldest segment of society assigned greater significance to
problems of the aged. Studying such problems led to increasing interest in the
relation of earlier phases of life to later phases, and the power of larger social
forces to shape the lifelong developmental trajectories of individuals.
5) The revolutionary growth of longitudinal research over the past three decades
– longitudinal research projects that began in the 1960s launched the long-
term study of human lives by allowing the examination of life trajectories
across multiple stages of life and by creating the need for new theoretical and
methodological models for studying life-long development.
Responses to the challenge
Early models of social pathways generally centered on a single role sequence like
that of a life cycle – children mature, marry, and have children who then grow up. The
concept of ‘career’ was another way of linking roles across the life course. The
available models of social pathways lacked mechanisms connecting lives with
biographical and historical time, and the changes in social life that spanned this time.
With renewed consciousness that linked individual lives to social change, historically
based studies emerged, which provided a necessary contextual understanding.
Hareven’s focus on successive worker cohorts during the declining economic
conditions of the 1920s and 1930s relates changing historical circumstances to
individual lives. Another example is Barker’s examination of the changing
developmental contexts of children. His study explores the implications of age-
specialization in behavior settings, which limits children’s observation of grown-up
behavior.
In pursuit of models of the life course, a number of concepts have been developed:
a) Social pathways – trajectories of education and work, family and residences
that are followed by individuals and groups through society. These pathways
are shaped by historical forces and are often structured by social institutions.
Large-scale social forces can alter these pathways through planned
interventions and unplanned changes. Individual choices are always
constrained by the opportunities structured by social institutions and culture.
b) Trajectories, or sequences of roles and experiences, are themselves made up
of transitions, or changes in state or role (e.g. become a parent, retiring). The
time between transitions is known as duration.
c) Transitions – involve changes in status or identity, both personally and
socially, and thus open up opportunities for behavioral change.
d) Turning points – substantial change in the direction of one’s life.
,Age, timing, and the life course
The emergence and development of life course theory
Generation-based models viewed individual lives in terms of the reproductive life
cycle and intergenerational processes of socialization. However, this has a loose
connection to historical time.
Locating people in cohorts by birth year provides more precise historical placement.
Cohorts link age and historical time. When historical change differentiates the lives of
successive birth cohorts, it generates a cohort effect.
History also takes the form of a period effect when the impact of social change is
relatively uniform across successive birth cohorts.
Thus, age represents not only a point in the life span and a historical marker, but also
a subjective understanding about the temporal nature of life.
Paradigmatic principles in life course theory
The life course provides a framework for studying phenomena at the nexus of social
pathways, developmental trajectories, and social change. Five general principles
provide guidance for such pursuits.
1. The principle of life-span development: human development and aging are
life-long processes.
By studying lives over substantial periods of time we increase the potential interplay
of social change with individual development.
2. The principle of agency: individuals construct their own life course through the
choices and actions they take within the opportunities and constraints of
history and social circumstance.
Children, adolescents, and adults make choices and compromises based on the
alternatives that they perceive before them. The planning and choice-making of
individuals, within the particular limitations of their world, can have important
consequences for future trajectories.
3. The principle of time and place: the life course of individuals is embedded and
shaped by the historical times and places they experience over their lifetime.
A place possess three essential features: geographic location, a material form of
culture of one kind or another, and investment with meaning and value.
The same historical event or change may differ in substance and meaning across
different regions and nations (e.g., WWII).
4. The principle of timing: the developmental antecedents and consequences of
life transitions, events, and behavioral patterns vary according to their timing in
a person’s life.
The same events or experiences may affect individuals in different ways depending
on when they occur in the life course. The very meaning of the event can change at
different developmental stages.
, 5. The principle of linked lives: lives are lived interdependently and socio-
historical influences are expressed through this network of shared
relationships.
Often, individuals are affected by larger social changes through the impact that such
changes have on their personal contexts within more micro-level setting.
The initiation of new relationships can shape lives as well, by fostering ‘turning points’
that lead to a change in behavior or by fostering behavioral continuity.
Because lives are lived interdependently, transitions in one person’s life often entail
transitions for other people as well.
Article 2 : Age and the explanation of crime – Hirschi
1. The age effect is invariant
Time and place
Recent data, the basis for many assertions of variability in the age distribution, force
the same conclusion – while population arrest rates have changed in absolute
magnitude over time, the same pattern has persisted for the relative magnitudes of
the different age groups, with fifteen to seventeen year-olds having the highest arrest
rates per population of any age group.
Furthermore, if the form of the age distribution differs from time to time and from
place to place, we have been unable to find evidence of this fact.
Demographic groups
Most discussions of the age distribution in a theoretical context assume important
differences for demographic subgroups (e.g. race, sex). Some suggestions give the
impression that the age distribution of crime varies across ethnic or racial groups.
However, available data suggests that the age-crime relation is invariant across sex
and race.
Type of crime
In some data, person crimes peak later than property crimes, and the rate declines
more slowly with age. However, the significance of this is problematic:
- Self-report data do not support the distinction between person and property
offenses – both types peak at the same time and decline at the same rates.
The peak years for these offenses in self-report data are the mid-teens, which are
also the peak years for property offenses in official data. In contrast, person offenses
in official data peak in the late teens or early twenties.
However, it has been found that the tendency to commit criminal acts peaks before
the physical ability necessary for serious violent offenses. The peak age for person
offenses is thus a consequence of the confluence of the ‘tendency’ and ‘ability’
curves.
