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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Crim Justice. 2016 Sep 1;46:64–81. doi: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2016.03.001

Table 1.

Evidence of adult-onset offending, sources from 1998 to 2014. Updated table of Eggleston & Laub (2002)1

Study name/description Data source Analytic sample Followed
to age:		 Type of crime data Adult offenders Juvenile-onset adult
offenders		 Adult-onset adult
offenders
n % of
sample		 n % of adult
offenders		 n % of adult
offenders
Prospective studies appearing in Eggleston & Laub (2002)
St. Louis Municipal
  Psychiatric Clinic Study		 Robins (1966) 441 males and
females in St.
Louse, antisocial
referrals and
nondelinquent
controls		 43 Nontraffic arrests 233 53% 218 94% 15 6%
Glueck Study Glueck & Glueck (1968) 880 males in
Boston, one half
delinquent		 31 Arrests for
nontraffic offenses		 328 37% 266 81% 62 19%
Cambridge-Somerville
  Study		 McCord (1978) 506 males in
Massachusetts		 mid to
late 40s		 Serious convictions 91 18% 50 55% 41 45%
Marion County Youth
  Study		 Polk et al. (1981) 1,227 males in the
10th grade in 1964
in Marion County,
OR		 30 Police and court
records for minor
and serious
offending		 90 7.3% 35 29% 55 61%
Cambridge Study in
  Delinquent Development		 Farrington (1983) 395 males in
London		 25 Nonminor
convictions		 107 27% 55 51% 52 49%
Langan & Farrington (1983) 395 males in
London		 25 Burglary or violence
convictions		 55 14% 19 35% 36 65%
Swedish Project
  Metropolitan		 Janson (1983) 7,710 males in
Stockholm, Sweden		 26 Crimes known to
police, including
nonminor traffic		 1,639 21% 601 37% 1,038 63%
Kratzer & Hodgins (1999) 13,852 males and
females in
Stockholm, Sweden		 30 All criminal
convictions,
including nonminor
traffic		 1,945 14% 800 41% 1,145 59%
Racine Cohort Studies Shannon (1988) 633 males and
females born in
1942 in Wisconsin		 32 Nontraffic police
contacts		 242 38% 118 49% 124 51%
Shannon (1988) 1,297 males and
females born in
1949 in Wisconsin		 25 Nontraffic police
contacts		 472 36% 305 65% 167 35%
Shannon (1998) 1,357 males and
females born in
1955 in Wisconsin		 32 Nontraffic police
contacts		 458 34% 236 51% 222 29%
1945 Philadelphia Birth
  Cohort Follow-up Study		 Wolfgang et al. (1987) 975 males in
Philadelphia born in
1945		 30 Police contacts for
nontraffic offenses		 290 30% 176 61% 114 39%
Individual Development
  and Environment		 Magnusson (1988) 1,389 males and
females in Orebro,
Sweden		 30 Nonminor arrests 248 18% 99 14% 149 86%
Montreal Study LeBlanc and Frechette (1989) 1,602 males in
Montreal		 25 Convictions for
indictable crimes		 172 11% 25 14% 149 86%
LeBlanc and Frechette (1989) 470 male wards of
the court in
Montreal		 25 Convictions for
indictable crimes		 339 72% 288 85% 51 15%
LeBlanc and Frechette (1989) 196 male wards of
the court in
Montreal		 25 Self-report
offending		 177 90% 150 85% 27 15%
Kauai Study Werner & Smith (1992) 505 males and
females in Kauai, HI		 32 Nontraffic police
records and court
convictions		 31 6% 21 68% 10 32%
1958 Philadelphia Birth
  Cohort		 Tracy & Kempf-Leonard (1996) 27,160 males and
females in
Philadelphia born in
1958		 26 Police contacts for
nontraffic offenses		 3,617 13% 2,041 56% 1,576 44%
Prospective studies published from 1999 forward, not included in Eggleston & Laub (2002)
Racine data Eggleston & Laub (2002) 732 males and
females in Racine,
WI born 1942 or
1949		 25 and
32		 Police contact for
nontraffic offenses		 179 24% 96 54% 83 46%
Youth Court Survey and
  Adult Criminal Court
  Survey		 Carrington, Matarazzo, & deSouza (2005) 323,694 Canadian
males and females
born 1979–1980		 22 Court referrals and
convictions		 37,426 12% 12,044 32% 25,382 68%
Philadelphia portion of
  National Collaborative
  Perinatal Project		 Gomez-Smith & Piquero (2005) 987 African
American males and
females born 1959–1962		 36–39 Convictions and
police contacts		 154 16% 76 49% 78 51%
Department of Child and
  Adolescent Psychiatry of
  the Central Institute of
  Mental Health,
  Mannheim		 Lay et al. (2005) 321 German males
and females born in
1970		 25 Official convictions,
self-reports, and
interviews with
parents		 72 22% 27 38% 45 63%
Jyväskylä Longitudinal
  Study of Personality and
  Social Development		 Pulkkinen, Lyyra, & Kokko (2009) 196 Finnish males
born in 1959		 47 Official convictions,
police-registered
crime, and self-
reports		 89 45% 57 64% 32 36%
Cambridge Study in
  Delinquent Development		 McGee & Farrington (2010) 404 British males
born in 1953 for
which a criminal
records search was
conducted at 48
years of age		 50 Official convictions 1672 41% 129 77% 38 23%
Sohoni et al. (2014) 411 British males
born in 1953		 50 Official convictions,
adulthood at 25
years of age		 1672 43% 138 83% 29 17%
National Longitudinal
  Study of Adolescent
  Health (Add Health),
  Waves 1–3		 Mata & van Dulmen (2012) 5,579 males and
females 13–18 years
of age at Wave 1,
with complete
antisocial behavior
data		 18–25 Self-reported
antisocial behavior		 9–13%
(est)2
Rochester Youth
  Development Study		 Sohoni et al. (2014) 638 male Rochester
public school
students born ca.
1973–1975		 31–33 Arrest records,
adulthood at 25
years of age		 3852 60% 335 87% 50 13%
Stockholm Birth Cohort Nilsson et al. (2013) 13,715 Swedish
males and females
born in 1953		 48 Police-registered
crime		 1,759 13% 812 46% 947 54%
Retrospective/offender only studies published from 1999 forward, not included in Eggleston & Laub (2002)
Colorado bond
commissioner processing		 DeLisi (2006) 500 male and
female frequent
offenders with
intake in Colorado
from 1995–2000		 Mean
age of 40		 Criminal records
and self-reports		 500 100% 192 38% 308 62%
Baltimore City Detention
Center		 Simpson, Yahner, & Dugan (2008) 351 adult females
incarcerated in
Baltimore		 Mean
age of 35		 Self-reports 342 100% 156 46% 186 54%
Southwestern prison Gunnison & McCartan (2010) 131 adult females
incarcerated in a
Southwestern
prison		 25 to 44 Self-reports 131 100% 55 42% 76 58%
Three-year statewide
classification study		 Harris (2011) 3,598 males and
females sentenced
to felony probation
in a large south
central US state
during October
1993		 48 Criminal records 3,598 100% 481 13% 3,117 87%
Life history interviews Carr & Hanks (2012) 30 females
incarcerated in a
local jail		 26 to 55 Official convictions
and self-reports		 30 100% 22 73% 8 27%
Swedish Project
  Metropolitan		 Andersson et al. (2012) 518 females with a
criminal record in
Stockholm, Sweden		 30 Crimes known to
police, including
nonminor traffic		 10% (est)2
1983–84 Queensland
Longitudinal Data Cohort
 Thompson et al. (2014a) 40,523 male and
female offenders		 25 Youth and adult
court finalizations,
youth police
cautions		 40,5232 100% 19,310 48% 21,213 52%

Notes:

1

- Sources reporting only results from group-based trajectory models are excluded.

2

– This figure is estimated based on group-based trajectory modeling.

3

– This figure includes juvenile-only offenders; the percentage of adult-onset offenders is thus across the entire offender group. In these cases the proportion of adult-onset offenders among adult-offenders is likely greater than the figure reported in the final column.