Life Course Perspectives on Crime

The life course perspective (herein, life course) is not a theory of criminal or any other behavior; rather, it is a framework within which theories can be placed to explain behavior. Life course recognizes that human beings move through the life span (birth to death) in a series of age-graded events and roles that are conditioned by history and social structure. Research in several disciplines (e.g., psychology, criminology, biology) utilizes life course to explain patterns of human behavior and life events. The life course perspective on crime is used to explain individuals’ pattern of criminal behavior over the life course, including the onset (how an individual begins involvement in crime), frequency, and duration. The main objective of life course on crime is to study changes ...

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