ABSTRACT
The Pittsburgh Youth Study consists of three samples of boys who, when the study began, were in grades one, four, and seven. Initiation in offending was most marked for the youngest sample, escalation in the seriousness of offending was prominent for the middle and oldest samples, while de-escalation was most prevalent in the oldest sample. One can argue that because many of the correlates of initiation were the same as the correlates of escalation and desistance, distinctions between the three processes are unwarranted. The chapter explores this argument in at least three ways: first, by examining which correlates applied to one process but not another; second, by examining whether correlates are equally strongly related to each process; and third, by examining how correlates of one process covaried with correlates of the other processes. Many of the factors associated with the initiation of offending have been identified as predictors of delinquency.
