Dissertation

Testing a new typology of juvenile offenders: An attempt to further differentiate early and late onset offenders

Gardner, Margo

2006

Overview

Among the typologies of juvenile offenders developed in the last half century, Moffitt's (1993) two-pronged taxonomy of early onset life-course-persistent versus late onset adolescence-limited offenders has attracted the greatest amount of empirical attention. Although evidence supports drawing a basic etiological and criminological distinction between early and late onset offenders, some studies have indicated considerable diversity within each of the two groups with respect to psychological deficits, seriousness of offending, and trajectories of offending over time. In the present study, I attempted to further differentiate among offenders within each of Moffitt's (1993) two groups. Using a sample of over 800 serious male felony offenders (aged 16 to 18 years) from two different regions of the country, I tested the hypothesis that cluster analyses would reveal four, rather than two, groups of offenders. Specifically, I predicted the existence of two groups of early onset offenders and two groups of late onset offenders, each with unique profiles across measures of age at onset of offending, neuropsychological functioning, verbal intelligence, psychosocial functioning, and violent offending. Within each of the two age of onset categories, I predicted that analyses would reveal one cluster with a profile similar to that of Moffitt's (1993) prototype, and one cluster with a non-prototypical profile suggesting a qualitatively different etiology and pattern of offending. Analyses failed to support the proposed four-part typology. Rather, analyses supported a two-part system similar to that proposed by Moffitt (1993). I identified one group of relatively violent, low-functioning, early onset offenders, and a second group of less violent, higher-functioning, late onset offenders. Analyses of between-group differences on variables not used in the identification of clusters support the contention that early onset offending may be attributed to a combination of serious psychological dysfunction and environmental adversity, while late onset offending may be the result of normal adolescent responses to antisocial peer influence. Consistent with prior research, I also found that early onset offenders, relative to late onset offenders, engaged in more frequent and more serious re-offending over an 18-month follow-up period.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Criminology / Developmental psychology
• ISBN: 0542623773, 9780542623776