Institute of Criminology Public Seminars: ‘Early Onset and Life-course Persistent Offending’

Speaker: Professor Dr Klaus Boers, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Muenster; Director, Department of Criminology

In developmental and life-course criminology two assumptions are quite popular, also among practitioners: (1) intensive violent offenders perform high frequency rates of offending over almost the whole life course (life-course persistent offenders). (2) An early onset of delinquent behaviour is one of the best predictors of life-course persistent offending. However, results gained from trajectory analyses of delinquent development may put these assumptions in a somewhat different perspective. They show (1) that most of even persistent intensive offenders desist from offending between ages 20 to 40. (2) Not only persistent intensive offenders start early on a level of high-rate offending, but also a group of offenders whose frequency rate declines rapidly in early adolescence. These early declining intensive offenders make up for at least half of all early starting offenders. Findings from the Crime in Modern Cities Study (CrimoC) show that, at age 13 and 14, their profile of offenses (amount of violence, vandalism, property) or of social and psychological indicators does not differ remarkably from that of persistent offenders. Empirical analysis uses the first seven waves (age 13 to 19) from the CrimoC-Study. CrimoC is an ongoing prospective panel study which started in 2002 with 13-year old school students (n = 3,411) in Duisburg, an industrial town of 500, 000 residents in Western Germany.

Professor Dr Klaus Boers is a Professor of Criminology. Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Muenster Director, Department of Criminology www.jura.uni-muenster.de/de/institute/kriminologie - www.crimoc.org Vice President [Criminological Society] Society of German Speaking Criminologists - www.krimg.de

This seminar starts at 5.30pm, and will be held in Seminar Room B3, Institute of Criminology, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 9DA. A drinks reception in the basement foyer will follow this seminar for attendees.

The IoC Public Seminar Series is open to all interested in attending, with no ticket required. If you wish to be added to the seminar mailing list, please contact: enquiries@cim.cam.ac.uk