ABSTRACT
While the biosocial bases of crime have been emphasised throughout this book, to date, there has been little attention given to the precise environmental events that contribute to crime. In this chapter and the ones that follow, we shift to a more explicit and detailed examination of the nurture side of the nature-nurture interplay. We begin in this chapter by taking a developmental perspective, examining the signifi cant life events that contribute to crime and criminality. Examining crime in terms of developmental experiences can help increase our understanding of when and why individuals begin offending, when and why they desist, and why there are individual differences in these patterns.
