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Katherine Teilmann Van Dusen and Sarnoff A. Mednick This introduction delineates what we consider to be three of the most important impediments to the advance of knowledge in the field of criminology. The most fundamental need is for more studies of the nature and progress of criminal and delinquent careers. The second need is for more prospective, longitudinal studies of the etiology of crime and delinquency. The third need concerns the lack of interdisciplinary research toward a more integrated understanding of delinquent and criminal behavior. Criminal and Delinquent Careers The birth cohort study by Wolfgang, Figlio and Sellin (1972) was heralded by many (Farrington, 1973; Erickson, 1973; Weis, 1974) as a landmark which allowed researchers to study the course of delinquency without the usual sampling biases that plagued other, cross-sectional research. For the first time, we could get a reasonable picture of when delinquency usually starts, what proportion of the population engages in delinquency, what types of delinquencies they engage in, what proportion continue, and so on. Cross sectional studies do not permit the investigation of careers because cross 1 PROSPECTIVE STUDIES OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY 2 sectional sampling includes only portions of careers for many of the individuals sampled. This is just one of the many problems that restricted researchers' ability to study the nature of criminal careers.
List of contents
1 Introduction.- I Criminal Behavior.- 2 Delinquency in Two Birth Cohorts.- 3 Offending from 10 to 25 Years of Age.- 4 Genetic Influence in Criminal Behavior: Evidence from an Adoption Cohort.- 5 Social Class and Crime: Genetics and Environment.- 6 School and Family Origins of Delinquency: Comparisons by Sex.- 7 A Psychosocial Approach to Recidivism.- 8 Testing a General Theory of Deviant Behavior in Longitudinal Perspective.- 9 Delinquency among Metropolitan Boys: A Progress Report.- 10 Hyperactive Boys and Their Brothers at 21: Predictors of Aggressive and Antisocial Outcome.- II Violence and Psychopathy.- 11 Criminal Violence in a Birth Cohort.- 12 Criminal History of the Male Psychopath: Some Preliminary Data.- 13 Testosterone in the Development of Aggressive Antisocial Behavior in Adolescents.- 14 Violent Crime in a Birth Cohort: Copenhagen 1953-1977.- 15 A Longitudinal Study of Aggression and Antisocial Behavior.- 16 Aggression and Criminality in a Longitudinal Perspective.- 17 Linear Causal Modeling of Adaptation and Criminal History in Sexual Offenses.- III Noncriminal Aggressive Behavior.- 18 Early Life Experiences that Relate to Later Aggression by Women.- 19 Familial Characteristics of Adolescents Vulnerable to Subsequent Antisocial Disorders.- Author Index.- Contributing Authors.
