Cross National Longitudinal Research On Human Development And Criminal Behavior

Background In July of 1992, approximately sixty scholars and researchers met for a week at the "Fritz Erler Akademie" in Freudenstadt, Germany, to participate in a workshop entitled "Cross-National Lon gitudinal Research on Human Development and Criminal Behavior". The participants represented 15 nations and 45 universities and research centers. Although longitudinal research in criminology has a long history, this workshop represented the first one in the field of criminology in which it was attempted to get together the main scholars in this field from around the world. The largest group of the workshop represented American scholars (19), a reflection of the fact that longitudi nal research in criminology is predominantly conducted in North America. This volume is the result of the workshop process and in particular of the invitations to participants to prepare pre or conference papers. The chapters in this volume were selected from a larger set of pre- or conference papers. As workshop conveners and volume editors, it falls to us to set some of the context for this enter prise. Longitudinal research in criminology became a major approach after the publication of the land mark study by Wolfgang, Figlio, and Sellin "Delinquency in a Birth Cohort" in 1972. Around the same time, when Wolfgang, Figlio, and Sellin started their Philadelphia cohort study, were longi tudinal studies, although different in scope and aim, launched by Shannon in the USA, West in England, Janson in Sweden, and Goppinger in Germany.

Human Development and Criminal Behavior proposes an exten- sive agenda for crime research. The book is part of a pio- neering effort to understand the causes of crime, particu- larly its developmental course. It defines and sets the con- ditions necessary to conduct an accelerated longitudinal study of individuals at risk to become engaged in criminal careers. This work offers a blueprint for research to eluci- date and possibly prevent crime in our society.

This volume examines longitudinal research in relation to crime and delinquency, and brings together prominent scholars in criminology to discuss theory, methodology, and impact of longitudinal studies in criminology. It answers a key question in Criminology: What have we learned from recent longitudinal studies of crime and delinquency? The volume includes a synthesis of longitudinal studies in criminology over the last 25 years and an appendix.

This innovative and timely work explores how the developmental criminology paradigm can be applied to understandings beyond criminal careers, to the development of more general antisocial behavior. Importantly, the rich data set from 50-years of cross sectional and longitudinal studies provides replication amongst samples, genders, generations and phases in the life span, from cohorts born in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. This work also provides a rich history about the development of the “Developmental Criminology” paradigm, drawing from developmental psychology, and life-course methodologies in Sociology. With a 50-year, multigenerational longitudinal dataset (the Montreal Two Sample Four Generational Cross sectionnal and Longitudinal Studies –MTSFGCLS) the author explores the mechanisms of official and self-reported antisocial behavior. It provides insights into not only criminal behavior, but other types of potentially problematic behavior, including drug and alcohol use, risky sexual behavior, conflict with authority and other forms of antisocial behavior; as well as their decline across the life-course. By examining the developmental mechanisms and trajectories of these behaviors, the author proposes a multidisciplinary theory to explain these phenomenons. This work will be of interested to researchers in Criminology, Sociology and Psychology, particularly within the growing area of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology, as well as related fields such as social work, public health and public policy.

Malcolm W. Klein Center for Research on Crime and Social Control University of Southern California 1. BACKGROUND In June of 1988, approximately forty scholars and researchers met for four days in the Leeuwenborst Congres Center in Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, to participate in a workshop entitled Self-Report Metho dology in Criminological Research. The participants represented 15 nations and 30 universities and research centers, a diversity that was matched by the experiences and focal interests in self-report methods among the participants. This volume is the result of the workshop process and in particular of the invitations to participants to prepare pre-conference papers for distribution prior to the workshop. The chapters in the volume were selected from the larger set of pre conference papers. As workshop conv~ner and volume editor, it falls on me to set some of the context for this enterprise. Self-report crime is "admitted" crime, derived from interview and questionnaire responses obtained from adults and juveniles (regardless of whether or not they have been arrested) concerning their own illegal behaviors. Growing awareness of the limitations of official crime statistics has led to the development of self-report procedures.

This volume examines longitudinal research in relation to crime and delinquency, and brings together prominent scholars in criminology to discuss theory, methodology, and impact of longitudinal studies in criminology. It answers a key question in Criminology: What have we learned from recent longitudinal studies of crime and delinquency? The volume includes a synthesis of longitudinal studies in criminology over the last 25 years and an appendix.

This book is the product of the efforts of a number of people dating back to 1956, when Professor T. Kemp, then head of the University Institute for Human Genetics in Copenhagen, proposed a study on the importance of x-ray irradiation in pregnant women. Under the guidance of Professors Dyhre Trolle and Preben Plum of the Uni versity Hospital in Copenhagen, the investigation was expanded to deal with prenatal and perinatal factors of importance for the development of the infant. The corpus of medical data that resulted from these efforts was collected and organized by Drs. Bengt Zachau-Christiansen and Aage Villumsen. The project's birth cohort included all deliveries that took place at the State University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, over a two-year period from 1959 to 1961. As part of the perinatal study, the mothers and children were subjected to regular and thorough medical examinations during pregnancy and through the first year of the child's life. The detailed data from these examinations, as well as information about treatment administered, were systematically collected and coded.