Developmental Theories of Crime and Delinquency

“Crime isn’t fixed—its roots, rise, and fall across the life course.”

Summary

Developmental Theories of Crime and Delinquency (Advances in Criminological Theory, Volume 7), edited by renowned criminologist Terence P. Thornberry, reframes criminal behavior as a dynamic phenomenon shaped over the life span. Rather than viewing crime as a static trait, the contributors reveal how it emerges, peaks, and diminishes in line with developmental stages.

This influential collection presents eight cornerstone essays—featuring scholars such as Terrie Moffitt, Robert Agnew, Sampson & Laub, and others—and shows how developmental and life-course perspectives enrich traditional theoretical frameworks like strain, social control, and symbolic interactionism. The volume explains why offending typically begins in adolescence, and how desistance often follows in the mid-twenties

Key features:

Introduces patterns like adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent offending (Terrie Moffitt).

Integrates developmental insights with strain theory, social learning, control theory, and role transitions.

Emphasizes the importance of timing, turning points, and cumulative disadvantage in shaping criminal pathways.