Crime in the Making

TLDR

The study revisits Gluecks' mid‑century data on 500 delinquents and 500 non‑delinquents to examine life‑course crime, noting that family and school bonds curb early delinquency, antisocial behaviors persist into adulthood, and adult social factors remain influential. The authors aim to explain both the stability and change of crime across the life course, challenging prevailing theories and offering a new basis for criminal‑justice policy. They re‑examined and recoded the original Gluecks dataset, digitizing 60 cartons of data and applying new analytical techniques. Their analysis yielded a theory of informal social control that links family and school bonds, persistent antisocial patterns, and labor‑force and marital attachment to reduced criminal activity.

Abstract

This explanation of crime and deviance over the life course is based on the re-analysis of a classic set of data: Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck's mid-century study of 500 delinquents and 500 non-delinquents from childhood to adulthood. More than five years ago, Robert Sampson and John Laub dusted off 60 cartons of the Gluecks' data that had been stored in the basement of the Harvard Law School and undertook a lengthy process of recoding, computerizing, and reanalyzing it. On the basis of their findings, Sampson and Laub developed a theory of informal social control over the life course which integrates three ideas. First, social bonds to family and school inhibit delinquency in childhood and adolescence. Second, there is continuity in antisocial and deviant behaviour from childhood through adulthood across various dimensions, such as crime, alcohol abuse, divorce and unemployment. And finally, despite these continuities, attachment to the labour force and cohesive marriage sharply mitigate criminal activities. Sampson and Laub thus acknowledge the importance of childhood behaviours and individual differences, but reject the implication that adult social factors have little relevance. They seek to account for both stability and change in crime and deviance throughout the life course. Crime in the making challenges several major ideas found in contemporary theory and aims to provide an important new foundation for rethinking criminal justice policy.