Criminal Careers and Crime Control: A Matched-Sample Longitudinal Research Design, Phase I - A User's Guide to the Machine-Readable Files and Documentation and Codebook

• NCJ Number: 146223
• Date Published: 1991
• Author(s): J H Laub; R J Sampson
• Length: 26 pages
• Grant Number(s): 87-IJ-CX-0022
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Instructional Material

Annotation

The relationship between crime control policies and fundamental parameters of criminal careers, such as participation, frequency, offense seriousness, and career length, was investigated using data from a matched sample study of juvenile and adult criminal behavior.

Abstract

Criminal history data were obtained for 500 juvenile delinquents committed to one of two Massachusetts correctional schools in 1940. Every arrest incident up to 32 years of age was recorded. Study variables included date of arrest, up to three charges associated with arrest, and court disposition, as well as starting and ending dates of probation, incarceration, and parole associated with arrest. All study subjects were white males between 10 and 17 years of age who grew up in lower class neighborhoods in central Boston. Data were collected from psychiatric interviews and parent and teacher reports and from police, court, and correctional records. Study subjects were interviewed again between 1949 and 1965 at or near the age of 25 years and again at or near the age of 32 years. The number of arrests included in the study totaled 5,828. Although data resulting from the analysis are tabulated separately, a data completeness report and a codebook are included. An appendix contains missing case data. 4 references and 4 tables