Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points through Life

by Robert J. Sampson, John H. Laub

Overview

This new explanation of crime over the life course provides an important foundation for rethinking contemporary theory and criminal justice policy. It is based on the reanalysis of a classic set of data: Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency, Sheldon and Eleanor Gluecks’ mid-twentieth-century study of 500 delinquents and 500 nondelinquents from childhood to adulthood. Several years ago, Robert Sampson and John Laub dusted off sixty cartons of the Gleucks’ data that had been stored in the basement of the Harvard Law School. After a lengthy process of recoding and reanalyzing these data, they developed and tested a theory of informal social control that acknowledges the importance of childhood behavior but rejects the implication that adult social factors have little relevance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674176058
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	03/15/1995
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Robert J. Sampson is Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor at Harvard University, Affiliated Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect.

John H. Laub is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Toward an Age-graded Theory of Informal Social Control

2. Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency and Follow-up Studies

3. Restoring, Supplementing, and Validating the Data

4. The Family Context of Juvenile Delinquency

5. The Role of School, Peers, and Siblings

6. Continuity in Behavior over Time

7. Adult Social Bonds and Change in Criminal Behavior

8. Comparative Models of Crime and Deviance

9. Exploring Life Histories

10. Summing Up and Looking Ahead

Appendix: Interview with the Gluecks' Original Research Staff

Notes

References

Index

What People are Saying About This

Hard-headed quantitative variable-oriented statistics are skillfully blended with qualitative person-oriented studies of individual life histories. A 'must' for anyone interested in either criminology or life-span development, and of great interest to a much wider group of readers. Crime in the Making is destined to become a classic.

Michael Rutter

Hard-headed quantitative variable-oriented statistics are skillfully blended with qualitative person-oriented studies of individual life histories. A 'must' for anyone interested in either criminology or life-span development, and of great interest to a much wider group of readers. Crime in the Making is destined to become a classic.
— Michael Rutter, Institute of Psychiatry, University of London

Editorial Reviews

This book will be widely read and cited, and it deserves to be. [The authors] have carefully crafted a model which addresses both stability and change in delinquency and crime over the life course, and they have done an impeccable job of testing it.

Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency - Candace Kruttschnitt

Imaginative and forthright, a well-argued book with broad theoretical and methodological implications.

John Modelln Journal of Sociology

Crime in the Making deserves widespread attention.

Contemporary Sociology - Joan McCord

Hard-headed quantitative variable-oriented statistics are skillfully blended with qualitative person-oriented studies of individual life histories. A ‘must’ for anyone interested in either criminology or life-span development, and of great interest to a much wider group of readers. Crime in the Making is destined to become a classic.

Michael Rutter

The book’s logical organization, the authors’ parsimonious explanation of key concepts and theoretical propositions, and the comprehensive presentation of their findings interact to produce a volume that possesses a high degree of clarity and readability… Crime in the Making should be read by all developmental criminologists and those interested in the study of criminal careers.

Criminologist - Douglas Yearwood

No previous work offers such a systematic and theoretically informed view of delinquent and criminal involvements from adolescence through adulthood.

John Hagan MD

No previous work offers such a systematic and theoretically informed view of delinquent and criminal involvements from adolescence through adulthood.

John Hagan

Crime in the Making deserves widespread attention.--Joan McCord "Contemporary Sociology"

Imaginative and forthright, a well-argued book with broad theoretical and methodological implications.--John Modell "American Journal of Sociology"

The book's logical organization, the authors' parsimonious explanation of key concepts and theoretical propositions, and the comprehensive presentation of their findings interact to produce a volume that possesses a high degree of clarity and readability... Crime in the Making should be read by all developmental criminologists and those interested in the study of criminal careers.--Douglas Yearwood "Criminologist"

This book will be widely read and cited, and it deserves to be. [The authors] have carefully crafted a model which addresses both stability and change in delinquency and crime over the life course, and they have done an impeccable job of testing it.--Candace Kruttschnitt "Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency"

No previous work offers such a systematic and theoretically informed view of delinquent and criminal involvements from adolescence through adulthood.--John Hagan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Hard-headed quantitative variable-oriented statistics are skillfully blended with qualitative person-oriented studies of individual life histories. A 'must' for anyone interested in either criminology or life-span development, and of great interest to a much wider group of readers. Crime in the Making is destined to become a classic.--Michael Rutter, Institute of Psychiatry, University of London

From the Publisher

Imaginative and forthright, a well-argued book with broad theoretical and methodological implications.

American Journal of Sociology - John Modell

Crime in the Making deserves widespread attention.
— Joan McCord

Contemporary Sociology

This book will be widely read and cited, and it deserves to be. [The authors] have carefully crafed a model which addresses both stability and change in delinquency and crime over the life course, and they have done an impeccable job of testing it.
— Candace Kruttschnitt

Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency

Imaginative and forthright, a well-argued book with broad theoretical and methodological implications.
— John Modell

American Journal of Sociology

The book's logical organization, the authors' parsimonious explanation of key concepts and theoretical propositions, and the comprehensive presentation of their findings interact to produce a volume that possesses a high degree of clarity and readability...Crime in the Making should be read by all developmental criminologists and those interested in the study of criminal careers.
— Douglas Yearwood

Criminologist