Comparisons in the Longitudinal Section

Abstract

By way of its immediate relationship in time with the offense, the cross section analysis offers a special access to criminal occurrences. Yet the cross section analysis is of no assistance in the essential question of the position of the offense in the longitudinal section of an offender’s life: Is the “presence” (or “lack”) of certain criteria or entire constellations immediately before the offense a “natural” result of an offender’s entire development in life or is it a unique or perhaps temporary conspicuousness? Neither the statistical analysis of the distribution of characteristics (see Part II) nor the ideal-typical behavior patterns (see Sect. 2 above) are of any use in this respect, as they do not cover the interrelationship of occurrences in time.