Serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders: The relationship of delinquency career types to adult criminality

Abstract

We describe the intersections between serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders through 16 years in which the 1958 Philadelphia birth cohort was at risk for delinquency and young adult crime. Official records mark the offense careers from early onset as juveniles through age 26 for 27,160 persons. This large database is unique in its ability to support analysis of serious, violent, and chronic offending while controlling for differences based on race, gender, and neighborhood social status. The results show that belonging to certain delinquency subgroups or following certain “pathways” increases the likelihood of being arrested in adulthood. Although prevalence differed, general findings were consistent across demographic criteria. We demonstrate the importance, to developmental criminology, of linking juvenile delinquency career types to adult criminality for policy formulation and theory development.