Book Review: Piquero, A. R., Farrington, D. P., & Blumstein, A. (2007). Key Issues in Criminal Career Research: New Analyses of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 240

Date01 December 2007
DOI10.1177/0734016807310667
Published date01 December 2007
Subject MatterArticles
evidence to support a major insurgence of killings by female juveniles in the 1990s. The
typical juvenile homicide generally resembles a character contest, “emphasizing the impor-
tance of achieving and demonstrating masculinity, respect, and status among individuals at
this stage of the lifecourse” (p. 188). Two other distinct patterns emerged for juveniles that
involved (a) younger juveniles killing family members and (b) a cluster of older juveniles’
involvement in instrumentally motivated intergroup homicides.
Those interested in race and crime will be happy to find that a comparison of Hispanic
homicides is also added to the typical Black versus White dichotomy. Although more than one
half of all homicides occur in situational contexts that are common to all race/ethnic groups,
about 25% are unique to each subgroup respectively. Similar to their other demographic
analyses, this “emphasizes the possibility that general theories of crime that assume similar
correlates across contexts may prove inadequate as explanations of homicide” (p. 225).
Rethinking Homicide is not only methodologically rigorous, but Miethe and Regoeczi are
careful to place their findings within the extant empirical and theoretical knowledge regard-
ing homicide situations. The authors also provide more than lip service to the policy impli-
cations of their work. In sum, Rethinking Homicide advances our understanding of the
structure and trends in homicide offending. The analytical technique of QCA used by Miethe
and Regoeczi significantly improves our ability to understand the complexity of homicide
events yet helps illuminate the stable patterns of homicide both across time and space.
Ronet Bachman
University of Delaware, Newark
Piquero, A. R., Farrington, D. P., & Blumstein, A. (2007). Key Issues in Criminal
Career Research: New Analyses of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 240
DOI: 10.1177/0734016807310667
Key Issues in Criminal Career Research: New Analyses of the Cambridge Study in
Delinquent Development by Alex Piquero, David Farrington, and Alfred Blumstein is a
major event in criminal career research. The book contains fresh, new quantitative analyses
of the offending data derived from the 411 males in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent
Development—one of the venerable data sets in criminology. The book is also the product
of three of the most formidable talents in the area. Blumstein was the senior editor of the
seminal National Academy of Sciences volume on criminal careers and career criminals, a
work that catapulted the area to the forefront of criminology. Farrington has been involved
in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development for nearly four decades, headed it since
1981, and has published hundreds of books and articles on the topic. Arguably the most pro-
ductive criminologist today, Piquero is a regular contributor to the criminal careers literature.
In terms of publications, citations, and visibility, the authors are chronic and serious offenders.
Key Issues in Criminal Career Research is clear and concise, and each chapter is treated
as a separate empirical question. After chapters containing overviews of the criminal
careers literature and Cambridge study design and data, the book explores eight major
Book Review(s) 441

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