Developmental Criminology Updated

Developmental criminology quantifies dynamic concepts for capturing important ingredients of change and stability. It distinguishes between continuity and stability and thereby recognizes that manifestations of deviancy in the course of individuals' lives may change, while the underlying propensity for deviancy may remain stable. It considers the course of offending in other developmental contexts, such as life transitions and developmental covariates, which may mediate the developmental course of offending. It aims at generating new knowledge about the etiology and precursors of offending, which may be relevant for much-needed improvements in future prevention and intervention programs. Activation, aggravation, and desistance are the three primary developmental processes of offending. Developmental criminology poses new questions and therefore encourages innovation in analytic methods that may help to describe and explain longitudinal changes in individuals' offending. These processes do not occur merely as a function of individuals' chronological age. It is important to search for variables that determine or mediate the variation of behavior with age. It is possible to operationalize individuals' positions within a sequence, distinguishing between individuals' qualitative and quantitative changes in offending.