Delinquency Careers in Two Birth Cohorts

1. Introduction.- 2. Cohort Studies in Criminology.- The Recognized Need for Cohort Studies.- Previous Studies of a Cohort Character.- Subsequent Studies of a Cohort Character.- Why a New Birth Cohort Study?.- 3. Contemporary Issues in Longitudinal Research.- Criminal Careers Historically.- The Value of Longitudinal Research on Criminal Careers.- 4. The 1958 Birth Cohort Study.- Objectives.- Capturing the Cohort.- Collection of Police Data.- Measuring Delinquency.- Scaling the Gravity of Crime.- The Seriousness Scoring System.- Measuring Socioeconomic Status.- Background Data.- 5. The Prevalence of Delinquency.- Race and SES.- Background Variables.- 6. The Incidence of Delinquency.- Extent of Delinquency.- Severity of Delinquency.- 7. The Chronic Juvenile Offender.- Chronicity and Frequency of Delinquency.- Chronicity and Severity of Delinquency.- 8. Delinquent Recidivism: Static Probabilities.- The First Offense.- Rank Number of Offense.- 9. Delinquent Recidivism: Specialization and Escalation.- Offense Transition Probabilities: All Offenders.- Offense Transition Residuals: All Offenders.- Offense Transition Residuals: All Offender Recidivists.- Offense Transition Probabilities by Race.- Offense Transition Residuals by Race.- Offense Escalation: All Offenders.- 10. Age-at-Onset and Delinquency.- Age-at-Onset Percentages.- Age-at-Onset and Mean Number of Offenses.- Age-at-Onset and Offense Severity.- Age-at-Onset and Offense Types.- 11. Delinquency and Age-at-Offense.- Distribution of Offenses by Age.- Offense Rates by Age.- Offense Types by Age.- 12. Police and Court Dispositions.- Disposition Distributions.- Disposition Contingencies.- 13. Summary and Implications.- Summary of Results.- Prevalence.- Incidence.- Delinquent Subgroups.- Recidivism.- Age and Delinquency.- Disposition.- Implications.- References.