Abstract
One of the strongest correlates of crime is age, with a common empirical finding of an adolescent rise and peak of offending. One theory in particular, Moffitt’s developmental taxonomy, advances a specific hypothesis for the age–crime relationship, with a focus on a specific typology of offenders, adolescence-limited, who offend for specific reasons during adolescence. This chapter reviews the adolescence-limited hypothesis, relevant empirical research, and concludes with summary statements, challenges to Moffitt’s adolescence-limited hypothesis, and directions for future research.
Keywords
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
To be sure, there are other theories that have been developed to explain the rise and peak of adolescent offending. Patterson and Yoerger (1997) set out a learning model in which decreases in parents’ monitoring and supervision during adolescence lead adolescents to offend. Another explanation is Agnew’s (2003) integrated theory of the adolescent peak in offending. Recalling that adolescents are given only some adult privileges and responsibilities, Agnew believes that this has important effects on increasing delinquency among adolescents, including (a) a decline in supervision, (b) increased social and academic demands, (c) participation in a larger, more diverse peer-oriented social world, (d) an increase in the desire for adult privileges, and (e) a reduced ability to cope in a legitimate manner and an increase in the disposition to cope in an illegitimate (delinquency/crime) manner to attain the adult privileges and goods they want (p. 273).
- 2.
References
Agnew, R. (2003). An integrated theory of the adolescent peak in offending. Youth and Society, 34, 263–299.
Aguilar, B., Sroufe, L.A., Egeland, B., & Carlson, E. (2000). Distinguishing the early-onset-persistent and adolescent-onset antisocial behavior types: From birth to 16 years. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 109–132.
Akers, R.L. (1998). Social learning and social structure. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood. American Psychologist, 55, 469–480.
Barnes, J. C., & Beaver, K. M. (2010). An empirical examination of adolescence-limited offending: a direct test of Moffitt’s maturity gap thesis. Journal of Criminal Justice, 38, 1176–1185.
Barnes, J. C., Beaver, K. M., & Boutwell, B. B. (2011). Examining the genetic underpinnings to Moffitt’s developmental taxonomy: a behavioral genetic analysis. Criminology, 49, 923–954.
Barnes, J. C., Beaver, K. M., & Piquero, A. R. (2011). A test of Moffitt’s hypotheses of delinquency abstention. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 38, 690–709.
Bergman, L. R., & Andershed, A. (2009). Predictors and outcomes of persistent or age-limited registered criminal behavior: a 30-year longitudinal study of a Swedish urban population. Aggressive Behavior, 35, 164–178.
Bor, W., McGee, T. R., Hayatbakhsh, R., Dean, A., & Najman, J. M. (2010). Do antisocial females exhibit poor outcomes in adulthood? An Australian cohort study. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 44, 648–657.
Braithwaite, J. (1989). Crime, shame and reintegration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Breslau, J., Borges, G., Saito, N., et al. (2011). Migration from Mexico to the United States and conduct disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 68, 1284–1293.
Broidy, L. M., Tremblay, R. E., Brame, B., et al. (2003). Developmental trajectories of childhood disruptive behaviors and adolescent delinquency: a six-site, cross-national study. Developmental Psychology, 39, 222–245.
Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development. (1985). Great transitions: preparing adolescents for a new century. New York: Carnegie Corporation of New York.
D’Unger, A. V., Land, K. C., & McCall, P. L. (2002). Sex differences in age patterns of delinquent/criminal careers: results from Poisson latent class analyses of the Philadelphia Cohort Study. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 18, 349–375.
Fairchild, G., Passamonti, L., Hurford, G., et al. (2011). Brain structure abnormalities in early-onset and adolescence-onset conduct disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 168, 624–633.
Farrington, D. P., Ttofi, M. M., & Coid, J. W. (2009). Development of adolescence-limited, late-onset, and persistent offenders from age 8 to age 48. Aggressive Behavior, 35, 150–163.
Fontaine, N. M. G., McCrory, E. J. P., Boivin, M., Moffitt, T. E., & Viding, E. (2011). Predictors and outcomes of trajectories of callous-unemotional traits and conduct problems in childhood. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 120, 730–742.
Galambos, N. L., Barker, E. T., & Tilton-Weaver, L. C. (2003). Who gets caught in the maturity gap? A study of pseudomature, immature, and mature adolescents. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 27, 253–263.
Gardner, M., & Steinberg, L. (2005). Peer influence on risk-taking, risk preference, and risky decision-making in adolescence and adulthood: an experimental study. Developmental Psychology, 41, 625–635.
Haynie, D. L., Weiss, H. E., & Piquero, A. (2008). Race, the economic maturity gap, and criminal offending in young adulthood. Justice Quarterly, 25, 595–622.
Hirschi, T., & Gottfredson, M.R. (1983). Age and the explanation of crime. American Journal of Sociology, 89, 552–584.
Hussong, A. M., Curran, P. J., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., & Carrig, M. K. (2004). Substance abuse ensnares young adults in trajectories of antisocial behavior. Development and Psychopathology, 16, 1029–1046.
Jeglum-Bartusch, D., Lynam, D., Moffitt, T. E., & Silva, P. A. (1997). Is age important? Testing general versus developmental theories of antisocial behavior. Criminology, 35, 13–47.
Jennings, W. G., Khey, D., Mahoney, M., & Reingle, J. (2011). Evaluating the continuity of offending from adolescence to emerging adulthood and its effect on academic failure among college student arrestees: a research note. Journal of Criminal Justice Education, 22, 578–592.
Laub, J. H., & Sampson, R. J. (2003). Shared beginnings, divergent lives. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Maldonado-Molina, M. M., Piquero, A. R., Jennings, W. G., Bird, H., & Canino, G. (2009). Trajectories of delinquent behaviors among Puerto Rican children and adolescents at two sites. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 46, 144–181.
Moffitt, T. E. (1993). Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: a developmental taxonomy. Psychological Review, 100, 674–701.
Moffitt, T.E. (1994). Natural histories of delinquency. In E. Weitekamp & H. J. Kerner (Eds.), Cross-national longitudinal research on human development and criminal behavior (pp. 3–61). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Press.
Moffitt, T.E., & Caspi, A. (2001). Childhood predictors differentiate life-course persistent and adolescence-limited antisocial pathways, among males and females. Development & Psychopathology, 13, 355–375.
Moffitt, T. E. (2006). Life-course-persistent versus adolescence-limited antisocial behavior. In D. Cicchetti & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology, vol 3: risk, disorder, and adaptation (2nd ed., pp. 570–598). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Harrington, H., & Milne, B. J. (2002). Males on the life-course-persistent and adolescence-limited antisocial pathways: follow-up at age 26 years. Development and Psychopathology, 14, 179–207.
Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Rutter, M., & Silva, P. A. (2001). Sex differences in antisocial behaviour. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nagin, D. S., Farrington, D. P., & Moffitt, T. E. (1995). Life-course trajectories of different types of offenders. Criminology, 33, 111–139.
Nevares, D., Wolfgang, M. E., & Tracy, P. E. (1990). Delinquency in Puerto Rico: The 1970 Birth Cohort Study. New York, NY: Greenwood Press.
Odgers, C. L., Moffitt, T. E., Broadbent, J. M., et al. (2008). Female and male antisocial trajectories: from childhood origins to adult outcomes. Development and Psychopathology, 20, 673–716.
Osgood, D.W., J.K. Wilson, J.G. Bachman, P.M. O’Malley, and L.D. Johnston. (1996). Routine activities and individual deviant behavior. American Sociological Review 61, 635–655.
Patterson, G. R., & Yoerger, K. L. (1997). A developmental model for later-onset delinquency. In R. Deinstbeir & D. W. Osgood (Eds.), Motivation and delinquency (pp. 119–177). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Piquero, A. R., & Brezina, T. (2001). Testing Moffitt’s account of adolescence-limited delinquency. Criminology, 39, 353–370.
Piquero, A. R., Farrington, D. P., & Blumstein, A. (2007). Key issues in criminal career research: new evidence from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Piquero, N. L., Gover, A. R., MacDonald, J. M., & Piquero, A. R. (2005). The influence of delinquent peers on delinquency. Youth and Society, 36, 251–275.
Piquero, A. R., & Moffitt, T. E. (2005). Explaining the facts of crime: how the developmental taxonomy replies to Farrington’s invitation. In D. P. Farrington (Ed.), Integrated developmental and life-course theories of offending: advances in criminological theory (pp. 51–72). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
Pulkkinen, L., Lyra, A., & Kokko, K. (2009). Life success of males on nonoffender, adolescence-limited, persistent, and adult-onset antisocial pathways: follow-up from age 8 to 48. Aggressive Behavior, 35, 117–135.
Quetelet, A. (1831). Research on the Propensity for Crime at Different Ages. Translated with an introduction by Sawyer F. Sylvester (1984). Cincinnati, OH: Anderson Publishing Co.
Raine, A., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Loeber, R., Stouthamer-Loeber, M., & Lynam, D. (2005). Neurocognitive impairments in boys on the life-course persistent antisocial path. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114, 38–49.
Roisman, G. I., Monahan, K. C., Campbell, S. B., Steinberg, L., Cauffman, E., & The National of Institute Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network. (2010). Is adolescence-onset antisocial behavior developmentally normative? Development and Psychopathology, 22, 295–311.
Silverthorn, P., & Frick, P. J. (1999). Developmental pathways to antisocial behavior: the delayed-onset pathway in girls. Developmental Psychopathology, 11, 101–126.
Simmons, R. G., & Blyth, D. A. (1987). Moving into adolescence. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Simons, R. L., Wu, C. I., Conger, R., & Lorenz, F. O. (1994). Two routes to delinquency: differences between early and late starters in the impact of parenting and deviant peers. Criminology, 32, 247–275.
Skardhamar, T. (2009). Reconsidering the theory on adolescent-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior. British Journal of Criminology, 49, 863–878.
Steinberg, L. (2008). A social neuroscience perspective on adolescent risk-taking. Developmental Review, 28, 78–106.
Steinberg, L. (2009). Adolescent development and juvenile justice. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 5, 47–73.
Steinberg, L., & Morris, A. S. (2001). Adolescent development. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 83–110.
Thornberry, T. P., & Krohn, M. D. (2001). The development of delinquency: an interactional perspective. In S. O. White (Ed.), Handbook of youth and justice. New York: Plenum.
Tracy, P. E., & Kempf-Leonard, K. (1996). Continuity and discontinuity in criminal careers. New York: Plenum.
Tracy, P. E., Wolfgang, M. E., & Figlio, R. M. (1990). Delinquency careers in two birth cohorts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Walters, G. D. (2011). The latent structure of life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: Is Moffitt’s developmental taxonomy a true taxonomy? Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 79, 96–105.
White, N. A., & Piquero, A. R. (2004). A preliminary empirical test of Silverthorn and Frick’s delayed-onset pathway in girls using an urban, African-American, US-based sample. Criminal Behavior and Mental Health, 14, 291–309.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Piquero, A.R., Diamond, B., Jennings, W.G., Reingle, J.M. (2013). Adolescence-Limited Offending. In: Gibson, C., Krohn, M. (eds) Handbook of Life-Course Criminology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5113-6_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5113-6_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5112-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5113-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)