ABSTRACT
Developmental and life-course criminology (DLC) is concerned with three main issues: the development of offending and antisocial behavior, risk and protective factors at different ages, and the effects of life events on the course of development. DLC is especially concerned to explain within-individual variations in offending throughout life, for example whether people commit more crimes during periods of unemployment than during periods of employment. The chapter aims to summarize key features of eight leading DLC theories, and to compare and contrast their answers to the key empirical and theoretical questions. The theories are Lahey/Waldman, Moffitt, Hawkins/Catalano, Farrington, Wikstrom, Sampson/Laub, Thornberry and Krohn, and LeBlanc. Most of the theories aim to explain the development of offending and antisocial behavior throughout life, but Lahey/Waldman focus only on the period from birth to age nineteen, Moffitt focuses on infancy to mid-life, and Hawkins/Catalano focus on preschool to young adulthood. Farrington aims to explain offending by lower-class males, but the other theories are general.
