Twenty years in the making: Revisiting Laub and Sampson's version of life-course criminology

Abstract

Purpose: Using data on participants born around 100 years ago, Laub and Sampson asserted that early developmental risk factors are not informative of social outcomes in adulthood. More specifically, they claimed that early risk factors were not informative of adulthood informal social control, persistent offending, and the degree to which informal social control protects against later offending. We offer a contemporary comparison point to these claims that carry theoretical implications for developmental and life-course criminology. Methods:The current study used prospective longitudinal data on 518 male and female participants from the Incarcerated Serious and Violent Young Offender Study. Early developmental risk for persistent offending was measured via the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV). Informal social control was measured in emerging adulthood via the Community Risk Needs Assessment (CRNA). Offending trajectories were measured for an average of 15 years following participants' CRNA ratings.Results: PCL:YV scores were negatively associated with informal social control (selection effects), positively associated with persistent offending, and negatively related to lower rates of offending, even when informal social control was high (treatment effect heterogeneity). Conclusions: Findings align with Elder's conceptualization of life-course theory that acknowledges the potential for individual, social, and macro-level factors to shape human development.