Abstract
This issue of the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology shows the journal’s true international character: The authors are from the United States, Switzerland, Israel, Canada, Spain, and South Korea. The issues raised in the articles cover a broad spectrum. They encompass the use of modern technology to prevent crime (Burraston, Bahr, & Cherrington), the prediction of violent sex and other offenses (Laubacher, Rossegger, Endrass, Angst, Urbaniok, & Vetter), psychopathy among juvenile sex offenders (Morrell & Burton), factors related to witnessing of violence (Sherer & Sherer), the relationship between physical and psychological violence and psychopathology (Silva, Grana, & González-Cieza), and the relationship between school performance and the likelihood of arrest (Yun, Cheong, & Walsh).
Despite this diversity of the topics, all the articles focus on youth. Thus, they are typical for the field of criminology: Various aspects of juvenile delinquency are and always have been a central topic of our discipline. Arguably, the majority of the most influential publications in criminology are about young people. This type of research has also substantially contributed to the development of criminological theories. There are strong reasons for this focus. It is during adolescence that people usually begin to commit crimes. In most individuals, crime also culminates during this period of life. From a preventive point of view, youths are considered to be important. It is generally believed that if these young people have not gone too far in negative development, there should still be time for change!
All of these arguments are reasonable, and the articles in many publications, such as those presented in this issue, show that it is possible to conduct interesting and relevant research on youths and crime. However, one may wonder if the criminological focus on youth is not too extensive.
It is (as we know from self-report studies) very common for young people to offend. Most young people are never caught for their offenses, are never given any formal sanction, continue to live their lives—often with few more delinquent acts—and eventually grow up to be normal, honest citizens. Some of them may even become criminologists. Viewed from this perspective, juvenile delinquency is a fairly undramatic part of becoming an adult.
The great difficulty is to distinguish the young people in whom criminal acts will heal by themselves (according to Moffitt’s 1993 terminology, the adolescence-limited) and those in whom there is a high risk of developing a persistent criminal career (life course-persistent; Moffitt, 1993). Several articles in this issue discuss this theme from different perspectives. Very large resources are allocated in most countries, via punishment and/or treatment, in an attempt to halt the process in youths that leads to their becoming persistent criminals. The effects of these measures, however, are often limited and it seems to be difficult to stop incipient criminal careers (e.g., Farrington & Murray, 2014).
Interviews conducted with persistent criminals (Carlsson, 2012) show that in the younger age, the perceived benefits of criminal activity are great and the drawbacks very few. Consequently, it is hard for these youngsters to motivate themselves (or to be motivated) to change their lifestyle. Money, popularity among peers (both male and female), excitement, and a feeling of power and control, for example, are important motives for young people beginning a criminal career and persisting in it. As well, the use of drugs provides strong rewards at that age. Their negative consequences are not perceived, yet many claim that they can stop using drugs when they wish.
Not until later, perhaps sometime in their 30s, do persistent criminals become aware of the price they have to pay for crime and drug use—that is, when they begin to face problems with physical and mental health, friends dying violent deaths, social isolation, long prison terms, the pursuit of drugs, lack of money and dwelling places, debts to society and to other criminals, and so on. Many persistent criminals who are interviewed at that age express a desire to stop committing crimes and abusing drugs. Many also occasionally attempt to desist (Carlsson, 2013). Most fail, however. There are usually very few resources in society to help people in that age group to break their criminal acting out. Such resources are focused instead on the much-less-motivated teenagers. In light of the foregoing, perhaps it would be relevant to increase our interest in the later stages of the criminal careers, when offenders are more mature and may be more motivated to change.
However, the most important insight of modern criminology is probably the message from Farrington and Welsh (2007) on the efficiency of early interventions. For example, measures that support vulnerable mothers with newborn children, good kindergartens, support for children with early learning difficulties, and so forth give good preventive outcomes. These measures are thus implemented long before the period when the rewards of a life of crime become so great that the probability of achieving good treatment results is small. If we can be successful with early crime prevention, then we can avoid the frustration of trying to stop incipient criminal careers in teenagers and waiting until the adult criminal might be ready to desist when he is around 30.