A central question in criminology is the degree to which adult transitions are sources of stability or change throughout the life course. Transitions in the form of marriage and employment are said to represent turning points for those most prone for a life course of persistent offending, as such experiences 'knife off' a criminal past. Few studies, however, have considered college completion as an adult transition capable of redirecting one's criminal trajectory. Moreover, research largely assumes that any attainment represents a positive turning point, but whether transitions like educational attainment really are positive depends on how these resources compare to prior generations, such as those of one's parents. The study of social mobility broadens our understanding of socioeconomic attainments by encompassing continuity and change within the life course, as certain achievements may be indicative of stability while others may represent a change - either positive or negative. For instance, obtaining a high school diploma may symbolize a positive turning point for those who grew up in poverty, while similar achievements for those from a higher social class may reflect a loss in social status if it is not followed by further educational attainment. Drawing on theories of social mobility, strain, and relative deprivation, I analyze the relationship between educational mobility and crime using data from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). First, I examine the relationship between educational mobility (i.e., one's own achieved education in relation to parents' attainment) and various types of crime (i.e., instrumental crime, violent crime, and illegal drug use). Next, I investigate how gender and race/ethnicity moderate the association between educational mobility and crime. Finally, I assess the concern of selection into educational mobility pathways via propensity score analyses, with the purpose of accounting for the confounding bias that may explain the alleged educational mobility and crime association. Results show that upward and downward intergenerational mobility are associated with decreases and increases in financial stressors and social psychological measures. Moreover, downward educational mobility is associated with greater increases in crime for females compared to males, and upward mobility results in greater reductions in crime for blacks and native-born Hispanics. Finally, results show that overall patterns of intergenerational mobility are robust when incorporating a series of propensity score techniques that account for confounding bias. In total, this dissertation contributes to the long speculated socioeconomic status and crime connection by integrating social mobility and education into criminological research as meaningful sources of change in the life course.

First Published in 2012. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Oxford Handbook on Developmental and Life-Course Criminology offers the first comprehensive look at these two approaches. Edited by noted authorities in the field, the Handbook aims to be the most authoritative resource on all issues germane to developmental and life-course criminologists from the world's leading scholars.

Giele and Elder introduce the life course approach, show how it developed and what it entails, consider how to collect and organise longitudinal data, and explore the analysis and interpretation of life course data.

This book brings together prominent investigators to provide a comprehensive guide to doing life course research, including an “inside view” of how they designed and carried out influential longitudinal studies. Using vivid examples, the contributors trace the connections between early and later experience and reveal how researchers and graduate students can discover these links in their own research. Well-organized chapters describe the best and newest ways to: *Use surveys, life records, ethnography, and data archives to collect different types of data over years or even decades. *Apply innovative statistical methods to measure dynamic processes that result in improvement, decline, or reversibility in economic fortune, stress, health, and criminality. *Explore the micro- and macro-level explanatory factors that shape individual trajectories, including genetic and environmental interactions, personal life history, interpersonal ties, and sociocultural institutions.

This volume focuses on the complex relation between offending and the transition from school to the workplace: how employment and education are related to breaking the law and getting in contact with the criminal justice system. The contributors report results from several large scale and sophisticated studies conducted in the Netherlands that gathered rich data on employment, education and criminal behaviour. Each of the studies focuses on a particular period during the life course and particular risk categories. Taken together, they contribute to our understanding of how getting out of school, getting into a job and doing illegal things are intertwined over the life-course, and how these relations differ with age and gender. The background of this volume is our interest in the often-studied relation between offending and employment, or more generally, between offending and the transition from school to work, including dropping out, part-time work and joblessness. The available literature casts little doubt that employment and education are indeed related to less crime and offending. However, this relation is much more complex than it appears at first hand. The volume is primarily aimed at researchers and students in the fields of criminology, sociology and economics. However, it may also be of use for non-academic professionals, in particular policy makers and practitioners in the field of criminal justice, probation/rehabilitation, and youth/schools.

The wide-ranging scope of the Handbook of Life-Course Criminology covers genetics and environment, child offenders and late bloomers, the impact of school and peers, lifelong and time-limited criminal careers, and qualitative and quantitative methodologies. This unique Handbook is further set apart by its dual coverage of the leading edge of current research and innovative directions for future work in the field. Pathways to crime have been a central concept of criminology from its inception. Accordingly, a lifespan approach to the field has replaced earlier biological and sociological perspectives with a more nuanced understanding of offender behavior and a wider lens of study. The contributions to this Handbook break down issues of criminal and antisocial behavior from early childhood to late adulthood, examining developmentally targeted prevention and intervention strategies and reviewing emerging trends in research. Among the topics: · Childhood: including physical aggression in childhood, pre- and peri-natal development, and environment. · Adolescence: the impact of schooling, unstructured time with peers, gang membership and peer networks. · Adulthood: Adult onset crime, unemployment in emerging adulthood, crime and adult outcomes. · Prevention and Intervention: community programs, lifetime intervention strategies, re-entry. This volume will be a valuable piece for researchers in Criminology and Criminal Justice as well as related disciplines such as Sociology, Developmental Psychology, and Social Policy. It will serve as an important reference for the current state of research, as well as a roadmap for future scholars. "This impressive Handbook provides comprehensive coverage of key developmental and life course issues in criminology from birth to adulthood, including biology, genetics, gangs, schools, neighborhoods, adult onset, desistance, and interventions. The research recommendations in each chapter are especially important, and they should stimulate advances in knowledge for many years to come. This Handbook should be required reading for all criminologists." David P. Farrington, Professor of Psychological Criminology, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK “In just a few decades developmental criminology has become the dominant intellectual force in criminology. This volume demonstrates why. It provides incisive reviews of important themes in developmental criminology. More importantly, it lays out rich agendas for future research that should inspire the next generation of developmental criminologists.” Daniel S. Nagin, Teresa and H. John Heinz III University Professor of Public Policy and Statistics, Carnegie Melon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA