ABSTRACT
In the last chapter we stressed that, among many criminal careers researchers, longitudinal studies are regarded as the gold standard in providing us with important information on issues such as onset, persistence and desistance within an individual. However, before focusing on these topics in some detail, criminologists studying criminal careers need to know about longitudinal studies in their own right. Are they indeed the ‘Great Solution’ to understanding criminal careers? There are two strategies in talking about longitudinal studies. Firstly, one can try to cover in detail all the longitudinal studies. This would be both tedious and repetitive in that many of their findings do replicate from one study to the next. However, in Box 3.1 we have listed some of the major longitudinal studies in criminology, beginning with the pioneering efforts of Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck and moving to some of the more contemporary developments. There will be others that are not mentioned — partly because new studies are emerging each year but also because in some studies the interest in crime and criminal behaviour is only tangential to the main issues of the project.
