ABSTRACT
This chapter presents major explanatory frameworks to account for individual variations in trajectories of offending during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. It reviews several major theoretical explanatory frameworks for criminal offending during the transition years, as well as some of the empirical support associated with them. The chapter focuses on four broad frameworks that currently inform the field's understanding of the patterns of offending. Two explanatory frameworks are one-dimensional, offering one model for all types of offenders. Third framework as the dual developmental perspective. The fourth explanatory framework is the biopsychosocial perspective. The chapter focuses on biological and some psychological aspects, while acknowledging that neurobiological/psychological influences can only be understood properly if social factors are also taken into account. Antisocial adolescents who desisted from criminal offending showed higher heart rates. Genetic research focuses on estimates of inheritable antisocial behaviour as well as on candidate genes for antisocial behaviour in interaction with the environment, the so-called gene-environment interaction.
