Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives: Delinquent Boys to Age 70.

• Author: Piquero, Alex R.
• Position: Book Review

JOHN H. LAUB & ROBERT J. SAMPSON, SHARED BEGINNINGS, DIVERGENT LIVES: DELINQUENT BOYS TO AGE 70 (Harvard University Press 2003). 338 pp.

INTRODUCTION

Understanding the longitudinal patterning of criminal activity has occupied a central spoke in the wheel of criminological investigation. Specifically, understanding the onset, continuance, and desistance associated with crime over the life course has been studied in one fashion or another, qualitatively or quantitatively, since the mid- to late-19th century. (1) Classic birth cohorts studied in the middle to latter part of the 20th century, (2) and reviews of the literature surrounding the relationship between age and crime, (3) continue to demonstrate the theoretical and policy import of tracking crime over the life course. Much contemporary research attempts to document how involvement in crime evolves as people age, as they transition from adolescence into adulthood, and whether orderly patterns of continuity and change in the frequency, seriousness, and diversity of offending activities are evident. (4)

Of course, in order to track the changes in criminal activity as individuals age, longitudinal data, which contain repeated observations of crime within persons over time, are necessary and are routinely received with a great deal of interest by the criminological community, especially since they bring the promise of increased knowledge about criminals and their crimes. (5) Longitudinal data are necessary for making proper inferences about individual trajectories of stability and change, (6) as well as how life events alter trajectories of criminal activity over the life course. (7) In fact, if researchers are to more accurately chart the causes and correlates of criminal activity, they need an adequate description of these phenomena. (8)

Criminologists have brought much evidence to bear on the longitudinal patterning of criminal activity. In fact, evidence on the relationship between age and crime has emerged from numerous longitudinal studies throughout the world, involving birth cohort, general population, and offender-based samples. Prominent longitudinal studies in Montreal, Rochester, Pittsburgh, Denver, Philadelphia, Seattle, Racine, London, Dunedin, and Stockholm have generated a great deal of information about the natural history of offending. (9)

Recently, Professors Thornberry and Krohn have "taken stock" of the key findings emerging from many of the world's foremost contemporary longitudinal studies. (10) Although there are some unique and important differences across the studies, six generalized findings about the causes, course, and consequences of delinquency and criminal activity stand out. (11) First, charting the developmental progression of delinquency indicates that individuals exhibiting an early onset of offending tend to commit many crimes, engage in relatively serious acts, and have lengthy criminal careers. Second, different groups of offenders emerge from this research, each differing in the shape and volume of criminal activity with age. Third, evidence indicates that effective parenting early in life yields more positive outcomes among offspring, that there is an intergenerational transmission of crime, and that gang-affiliated delinquent peers increase the criminal activity of youths. Fourth, the life course transitions of marriage and grade retention can alter crime trajectories, in the case of marriage by decreasing them, and in the case of grade retention by increasing them. Fifth, these studies have shown that antisocial and criminal activity impact other aspects of individual's lives, such as parental behavior, educational attainment, childbearing, mate selection, and so forth. Sixth, longitudinal studies have shown that while there is a significant degree of continuity in misbehavior, there is also a fair degree of change, suggesting that a middle-ground position that combines elements of continuity and change are needed for a more complete understanding of crime over the life course. (12) Several unexpected results have also emerged from these studies. For example, trajectory-based research identifies a group of offenders ("late-onset chronics") who are not anticipated by previous theory. (13) These individuals begin offending during mid to late adolescence and continue offending at high and/or stable rates in early adulthood.

Although these efforts have been important and well received, most studies have only followed their subjects through their 20s, and only a few have followed their subjects past the 30s. (14) This right-hand censoring problem--i.e., that individuals are only followed until a particular age and are thus missing information on criminal activity occurring after that period--complicates researchers' abilities to truly identify individuals who have desisted because they may be incapacitated or are on holiday. (15) Fortunately, a recently published and award-winning book begins to fill this void.

In Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives: Delinquent Boys to Age 70, Professors John Laub and Robert Sampson, arguably among the most influential life-course criminologists working today, have undertaken a large effort to carefully document the criminal activity of 500 delinquent boys through age seventy. (16) The central thesis of their book is that in order to explain longitudinal patterns of crime, data are needed on childhood, adolescence, and adulthood experiences. The authors use a wide range of data to understand the patterning and causes of persistence in--and desistance from--criminal activity, ultimately reminding readers that the full life course matters, especially post-childhood, adolescence, and adult experiences.

Their study also combines both quantitative and qualitative data to understand not only the patterning of crime, but also the reasons for persistence, desistance, and zig-zag points in between. Their effort provides one of the most comprehensive portraits of criminal careers available, using what is the longest longitudinal study of crime in the world. Combining national death and criminal history records up to age seventy, along with life-history interviews with fifty-two delinquents, they have altered the future of criminal careers research with an agenda-setting effort.

Given this, it goes without saying that this book is a must-read for all those interested in the longitudinal patterning of criminal activity, as well as for any criminologist who wants a model by which to understand how qualitative and quantitative research can truly be integrated in order to dissect the web of continuity and change in criminal activity. Section ! of this review summarizes the book chapter by chapter. Section II considers some of the book's specific strengths and weaknesses and outlines a modest set of future research directions. Section III places the book within the context of extant developmental criminology and criminal careers research.

1. SHARED BEGINNINGS, DIVERGENT LIVES

   Why do some offenders persist, others desist, and still others zig-zag in between these end-points? This question is central to both theory and policy. In Chapter One, Laub and Sampson begin with the divergent outcomes of Arthur and Michael. Their stories capture much of what criminologists try to explain: why two sets of individuals, starting at the same point, end up with two drastically different outcomes. In this chapter, Laub and Sampson reject several "popular notions" about continuity and change in criminal activity. (17) For example, they

   reject the idea that childhood experiences such as early involvement in antisocial behavior, growing up in poverty, and woeful school performance are sturdy markers for predicting long-term patterns of offending ... that individual "traits" such as poor verbal skills, low self-control, and difficult temperament can explain long-term patterns of juvenile delinquents ... [and] that offenders can be neatly grouped into distinct categories, each displaying a unique trajectory and etiology of offending. (18) They review their earlier book, Crime in the Making, and identify the three major challenges that have been levied against them by the community of scholars: the notion that there are distinct groups of offenders, each of whom follow a pre-determined pathway; whether particular dynamic methodological tools yield important insights into the longitudinal patterning of crime and "their ability to identify meaningful patterns of change in crime"; and that they did not fully explore a person-based analysis. (19)

   Following this, they outline the book's analytic focus and organization. Laub and Sampson indicate that searches for all 500 men in the original Glueck delinquent sample were conducted up to age seventy, and that they tracked, located, and conducted life-history interviews with fifty-two men from the original delinquent group as they approached age seventy. These men, who had not been contacted in over thirty-five years, were "selected on the basis of their trajectories of juvenile and adult offending ... as derived from official criminal records." (20) The qualitative interviews are absolutely essential for understanding and unpacking the "mechanisms that connect salient life events [including crime] across the life course, especially regarding personal choice and situational context." (21) Also, the authors anticipate, and tackle head on, a concern raised by other researchers regarding the Glueck data: that they are old, and of a select group of individuals who were born during the Great Depression era.

   Chapter Two asks a simple but challenging question: persistence or desistance? Here, Laub and Sampson identify and then critique the explanations that have been proffered to account for desistance, including maturation, development, rational choice, and social learning. They then present their own integrated approach, which is based on the principles of life-course inquiry...