Male and Female Development of Delinquency during Adolescence and Early Adulthood: A Differential Autoregressive Model of Delinquency Using an Overlapping Cohort Design

Although it is well known that during adolescence the delinquent involvement of females is consistently less when compared to male involvement, it remains an important question whether the development of delinquency has a similar trajectory for both sexes. The main hypothesis tested is whether sex d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Adolescence 2008-03, Vol.43 (169), p.89-98
Main Authors: Landsheer, Johannes A, Oud, Johan H. L, van Dijkum, Cor
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adolescents
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Age
Biological and medical sciences
Calculus
Changes
Cohort Studies
Criminal behavior
Criminal behavior, Prediction of
Criminal behaviour
Data collection
Delinquency
Development
Disease Progression
Expected values
Female
Females
Follow-Up Studies
Gender Differences
Humans
Hypothesis Testing
Juvenile Delinquency
Juvenile Delinquency - statistics & numerical data
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Males
Medical sciences
Models, Psychological
Prediction of criminal behavior
Prediction of criminal behaviour
Psychological aspects
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Sex Differences
Social Behavior Disorders - psychology
Social behavior disorders. Criminal behavior. Delinquency
Studies
Teenagers
Variables
Young Adults
Youth
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Summary:Although it is well known that during adolescence the delinquent involvement of females is consistently less when compared to male involvement, it remains an important question whether the development of delinquency has a similar trajectory for both sexes. The main hypothesis tested is whether sex differences in delinquency, specifically growth, peak age, and decline, are constant. An autoregression model in continuous time, implemented as a structural equation model, is used for the description of the development of delinquency in males and females. The data are collected in an overlapping cohort design, and both within-person and between-persons data are integrated into a single model. The result shows that the involvement with delinquency over time is different for males and females. The main difference increases up to the age of 16, and decreases thereafter. The model indicates that both sexes reach the maximum in delinquency at the same age. It is concluded that males and females differ both in their start level at age 12 and in the amount of change with age. (Contains 1 figure and 3 tables.)
ISSN:0001-8449