ABSTRACT
There is a renewed interest in studying crime across the lifespan. However, the interest has been fragmented and the aim of this book is to build bridges between theoretical criminology, the study of criminal careers and policy-relevant research. Certainly there has been a burgeoning, or perhaps we should say resurgent, interest in criminal careers research. As we shall see when we consider the major longitudinal studies, there are phases when there are enthusiasms for this type of research and then it seems to go out of fashion. Much of the recent resurgence — that is, over the past decade or so — has been related to the opportunities that advances in computer and statistical work can deliver. There is scope for doing statistical manipulations which previously would have taken many person-years to complete but are now undertaken in minutes. However, there has also been a renewed interest in qualitative work whereby interviewing offenders produces new insights. The discovery of the original worksheets of the major longitudinal study by the Gluecks in the vaults of Harvard University and the subsequent re-interviewing of many in this cohort around the age of 70 produced a captivating book by Sampson and Laub in 2003. In this respect, something of the origins of criminal career research and the recent resurgence of interest were brought together.
