ABSTRACT
This chapter builds upon the latent transition analysis methodology used by Bartolucci and Francis, to identify the crime mix patterns and to see how offenders transition between such groups as they age in both England & Wales and the Netherlands. It focuses on finding crime mix patterns and how they develop over the life course, within two longitudinal datasets of criminal conviction histories from England & Wales and the Netherlands. For most of the twentieth century, welfarism typified the youth justice system in England and Wales. Previous criminal careers research has explored a wide range of topics relating to patterns of criminal activity over the life course. For many years, researchers have tried to distinguish offenders from non-offenders by classifying offenders into criminal typologies. Investigating different crime mix patterns for evidence of specialisation or versatility is important for understanding the processes that cause criminal activity over the life span.
