ABSTRACT
This chapter compares criminal career features of three nationally representative and contemporary cohorts, from Finland, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Subjects were all born in the 1980s, and thus shed light on criminal career development in a contemporary context. While all three countries are located in the North-Western part of Europe, all three are characterized by different environmental features, cultural practices, and legal traditions. Comparing criminal careers in these cohorts will therefore directly speak on the cross-national applicability of criminal career findings, and in extension the universality of the theories offered to explain them. The chapter aims to further strengthen the empirical foundations of the criminal career paradigm by comparing criminal career data from three different North-Western European countries that are known for having excellent national register data available for research purposes. Based on register data from three different European countries, the chapter analyzes criminal career patterns from adolescence to early adulthood.
