Hans-Jürgen Kerner

Cross-National Longitudinal Research on Human Development and Criminal Behavior

Introduction. Part I: Lessons of Longitudinal Research. Natural Histories of Delinquency T.E. Moffitt. Part II: Recent Longitudinal Studies around the World. Criminal Careers in London and Stockholm: a Cross-National Comparative Study D.P. Farrington, P.-O. Wikstroem. A Longitudinal Analysis of Juvenile Arrest Histories of the 1970 Birth Cohort in Japan Y. Harada. Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare: Longitudinal Research in the State of Michigan I.M. Schwartz, S.A. Kapp, E.J. Overstreet. Methodological Annotations on Retrospection in Criminological Research P. Sutterer, T. Karger. Determinants of Patterns of Recidivism: Some Results of Survival Analysis Based on Official Crime Records of the Swiss Canton Jura S. Karstedt. Measures of Escalation and their Self and Social Control Predictors M. Le Blanc. Family Socialization and Antisocial Behavior: Searching for Causal Relationships in Longitudinal Research J. McCord. Longitudinal Research in Criminology: Promise and Practice D.S. Elliott. Examining Developmental Trajectories in Delinquency Using Accelerated Longitudinal Research Designs D. Huizinga, F.-A. Esbensen, A. Weiher. Neigborhood Context and Delinquency: a Longitudinal Analysis A.J. Lizotte, T.P. Thornberry, M.D. Krohn, D. Chard-Wierschem, D. McDowall. Initiation of Drug Selling and its Relationship with Illicit Drug Use and Serious Delinquency in Adolescent Boys W. van Kammen, E. Maguin, R. Loeber. The Probability and Timing of Rearrests for Seriously Violent Crimes: Some Descriptive Patterns in Individual Arrest Histories and their Policy Implications N.A. Weiner. Self-Reported and Officially Defined Offenses in the 1958 Philadelphia Birth Cohort R.M. Figlio. Protective Effects of Social Resources in Adolescents at High Risk for Antisocial Behavior F. Losel. Desistance from a Delinquent Way of Life? R. Mischkowitz. Part III: Clinical Approaches, Deterrence, and Socio-Economic Development. Longitudinal Research from the Point of View of Clinical Criminology U. Gatti, A. Verde. Criminological Research: From Cohort Studies to Clinical Epidemiology KA.M. Favard. Identification and Interpersonal Maturity: Contribution to a Developmental Approach of Juvenile Delinquency E. van Poppel, M. Born. Evidence for the Adoption of a Learning Theory Approach to Criminal Deterrence: a Preliminary Study P.A. Brennan, S.A. Mednick. Development and Crime: an Explanatory Study in Yugoslavia U. Zvekic. Part IV: Future Directions of Longitudinal Research. Communities Change, Too M.W. Klein. Next Steps in Criminal Career Research A. Blumstein. A Case for a Longitudinal Study C.-G. Janson. Towards Comparative Societal Longitudinal Studies A.J. Reiss, Jr. Epilogue: Workshop and Plenary Discussions, and Future Directions E.G.M. Weitekamp, H.-J. Kerner.

A Chinese Birth Cohort: Theoretical Implications

Research on delinquency has shown consistent results across Western industrialized countries. Few studies have been done in non-Western cultures. This study reports on the results of a birth cohort study in China, which was started by Marvin Wolfgang but never completed. The cohort, born in 1973, was traced through official and community files. The amount of delinquency is significantly low. However, significant differences were found between delinquents and nondelinquents in terms of peer influences, family influences, and school. Regression results show that the most important school factors associated with offending are those relating to level of education completed and dropout status and interactions between students and teachers. Offenders were found to be approximately five times more likely than nonoffenders to associate with delinquent peers. This study reinforces previous findings—there are critical sociological variables related to social integration, family, and school experiences that significantly differentiate between those who become offenders and those who do not.

Risk and Protective Factors Related to Offending: Results from a Chinese Cohort Study

Recent research has illustrated the importance of risk and protective factors on offending. The current study examines survey data from a sample of 81 offenders and 81 nonoffenders residing in Wuhan, China, in 1991/92 to determine how the accumulation of risk and protective factors in various domains differentiates offenders from nonoffenders. Specifically, we examine the importance of multiple causation and cumulative effects of risk and protective factors as they apply in a Chinese context. Results suggest that the risk and protective factor approach often used in studies of western offending also holds promise in studies of Chinese offending. Specifically, our findings support the importance of examining multiple causation and cumulative effects of risk and protective factors as related to offending. The findings also suggest that the risk and protective factors found to be important in China may be somewhat different to those identified through studies conducted in the West, illustrating the importance of recognising historical and cultural context in the risk and protective factor paradigm.

Epilogue: Workshop and Plenary Discussions, and Future Directions

Our principal aim in planning and running the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Cross-National Longitudinal Research on Human Development and Criminal Bahavior was to emphasize the direct exchange of ideas among the various longitudinal researchers in the field of criminology. Therefore we tried to restrict the full presentation of contributions during the workshop in order to gain time (and to save creative energy) for structured discussion, free debates, and sometimes even brainstorming sessions. The participants were expected to have studied the papers well in advance of the workshop or, in case the texts were distributed on the spot, to study them before the relevant sessions. This design allowed us, together with the method of revolving groups (see introductory remarks), to combine short, condensed presentations of the core papers with rather extended phases of either methodologically and/or substantially oriented communication.

Developments in crime and crime control research : German studies on victims, offenders, and the public

The editors of this text attempt to bridge the traditional gap between Anglo-American scholars in criminology and their German counterparts. The language barrier has long been another contributing circumstance to the division of philosophy among countries, but recently, substantial attempts are being undertaken to examine more closely the differences among specific criminological schools of thinking. This text points out that, although crime has its universality, a clear understanding of the various approaches to the problem of crime should prove of benefit to those in the field in all countries.

Book Review Essay: The Complex Dynamics of the Onset, the Development, and the Termination of a Criminal Career: Lessons on Repeat Offenders to Be Drawn from Recent Longitudinal Studies in Criminology

ANNALS, AAPSS, 602, November 2005 259 Hans-Jürgen Kerner, Dr.jur., is director of the Institute of Criminology and chair of Criminology, Juvenile Penal Law, Penal Procedure, and Corrections at the Faculty of Law at the University of Tübingen in Germany. Previously, he was a professor at the Universities of Bielefeld, Hamburg, and Heidelberg. He was a visiting professor/ fellow at the Universities of Southampton (United Kingdom), Peking (Peoples’ Republic of China), Pennsylvania (United States), Melbourne (Australia), and Cambridge (United Kingdom). He is president of the German Foundation for Crime Prevention, president of the European Society of Criminology (2005-2006 term), and lifetime honorary president of the International Society for Criminology. He holds lifetime memberships with the ASC and the ACJS in the United States and is a member of numerous other scholarly associations. Formerly, he was a member of a Council of Europe research fellowship team on the state of organized crime in Europe (Strasbourg, France) and a judge at the Hanseatic High Court of Appeal, Criminal Law Division, State of Hamburg (Germany).

Kriminologische Forschung im sozialen Umbruch

Auch die Kriminologen haben die Implosion des mit Kurzbegriffen wie „Ostblock“ bezeichneten realsozialistischen Herrschaftssystems nicht vorhergesehen. Selbst als der von vielen Burgern durchaus bis gegen Ende noch ganz real verspurte Eiserne Vorhang locherig wurde, und als die Bevolkerung begann, den bis dato Machtigen die Macht durch „Abstimmung mit den Fusen“ zu nehmen, ihnen also ihren roten Teppich bildlich unter ihren Fusen wegzuziehen, brach keine spontane Aufregung aus. Dies ist jedenfalls der Befund, wenn man sich auf die veroffentlichte Literatur stutzt. Und das Graben in der personlichen Erinnerung als Insider des Fachs seit 1968 produziert nichts, was diesem Befund widersprache.

Implementation and Acceptance of Victim-Offender Mediation Programs in the Federal Republic of Germany: A Survey of Criminal Justice Institutions

This article first explains the existing legal rules in the FRG concerning restitution and victim-offender mediation in the fields of adult and juvenile penal law. Then new developments (in the 1980s) and the increased efforts to implement restitution and victim-offender mediation more effectively in criminal justice practice are dealt with. After considering several published reports on the acceptance of victim-offender mediation in the FRG up to 1989, a large national mail survey carried out in spring 1990 by the German Probation and Parole Association (DBH) is described in detail. About 2,500 institutions were asked with questionnaire methods whether or not they would approve of victim-offender mediation in their area of jurisdiction, whether or not victim-offender mediation was actually being practiced or projected, and whether or not the concrete office was already engaged in victim-offender mediation projects. Results are presented with tables and figures.

Alkoholkonsum, Verhaltensprobleme und Problemverhalten

Jede Betrachtung zum Zusammenhang zwischen Alkoholkonsum und sozialer bzw. strafrechtlich relevanter Auffalligkeit mus die Rolle in Rechnung stellen, die der Alkohol im betrachteten Kulturkreis generell spielt. Andernfalls besteht die Gefahr, das einzelne Aspekte uberbewertet werden, die sich bei einer im speziellen Fall untersuchten Personengruppe auffinden lassen, dort imponieren, aber unter Umstanden doch nicht spezifisch sind.

Bridging the American/European Contexts: Interventions, Communities, Youth Groups, And Moral Panics

Part I of this volume presented an updated overview of gangs in the U.S. The most general purpose of these papers was to emphasize street gang realities and to dispel common myths and ambiguities about the American gang situation. Modern data, derived from both traditional and recently sharpened research methods, were presented to illustrate the paradox that beliefs about European gangs as different from those in America may be based in large part on false stereotypes of most American gangs. Any implications for European gang knowledge and practice must come from realistic images of the American situation.