Victor van der Geest

Delinquent Development in a Sample of High-Risk Youth Shape, Content, and Predictors of Delinquent Trajectories from Age 12 to 32

The authors analyzed delinquent development from age 12 to 32 in 270 male offenders who underwent residential treatment for problematic behavior and delinquency in a Dutch juvenile justice institution. Stable personality and background characteristics were measured on admission. The development of offending was examined on the basis of conviction data from age 12 to 32, constituting an average 13-year follow-up after release. Trajectory analysis distinguished five groups of serious offenders. Using nonlinear canonical correlation analysis, these offending groups were characterized on personality, behavioral, and background characteristics. Although delinquent activity declined for most juveniles, two groups, high-frequency chronic offenders and late bloomers, showed nontrivial levels of serious criminality until their late 20s and early 30s. High-frequency chronic offenders were characterized mainly by a criminogenic social environment. Late bloomers combined psychopathology with risk-taking behavior and poor social skills. Examining the nature of the offenses committed within each trajectory revealed that late emerging offending became increasingly violent over time.

Criminality and Family Formation: Effects of Marriage and Parenthood on Criminal Behavior for Men and Women

In this article, the authors study the effects of family formation on criminal careers for 540 high-risk men and women in the Netherlands. In a prospective design, spanning 21 years, the authors analyzed complete data on offending, marriage, parenthood, and a large set of background information. Random effects were used to model the relation between family-life events and offending, controlling for possible confounders. Findings for men support the hypothesis that marriage promotes desistance from serious offending. Males additionally benefit from parenthood, and from having a first child in particular. Furthermore, although parenthood reduces offending more strongly than marriage, the “full family package” brings the most benefit. Female offending patterns were not significantly influenced by marital status or motherhood.

Criminal Trajectories of White-collar Offenders

Objectives: This article analyzes the criminal development and sociodemographic and criminal profile of a sample of prosecuted white-collar offenders. It identifies trajectory groups and describes their profiles based on crime, sociodemographic, and selection offence characteristics. Methods: The criminal development of 644 prosecuted white-collar offenders in the Netherlands was examined using all registered offences from age 12 onward. In addition, sociodemographic background information was gathered from the Netherlands Internal Revenue Service and Municipal Personal Records Office. Trajectory analysis was conducted to approximate the underlying continuous distribution in criminal development by a discrete number of groups. Results: The criminal career characteristics and sociodemographic profile show a heterogeneous sample of white-collar offenders. Trajectory analysis distinguished four trajectory groups. Two low-frequency offender groups, totaling 78 percent, are characterized by their adult onset. The two high-frequency offender groups, totaling 22 percent, are characterized by their adolescent onset. Distinct and internally consistent offender profiles emerged for the four trajectory groups on the basis of crime, sociodemographic, and selection offence characteristics. Conclusions: The diversity in offence patterns and offender profiles points to different (developmental) causes for white-collar crime and underlines the importance of further longitudinal research on white-collar offending from an integrated white-collar and life-course perspective.

Personal, background and treatment characteristics associated with offending after residential treatment : A 13-year follow up in adolescent males

Abstract We report on delinquency for 270 males after residential treatment in a juvenile justice institution in the Netherlands. We describe personality characteristics, relations with peers, school and family, as well as treatment characteristics. Next, we describe post-release offending based on reconviction data, and relate this to background characteristics, differentiating between serious and violent offending. In doing so, we distinguish between incidental offenders, chronic offenders and desisters.

Experiencing emerging adulthood in the Netherlands

Emerging adulthood is recognized as a recent and developmentally distinct phase in the life-course, characterized as a period of identity exploration, of instability, being self-focused, feeling in-between, and an age of possibilities. To measure the subjective experience of emerging adulthood Reifman, Arnett, and Colwell developed the Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA). While a series of studies demonstrated the applicability of the five dimensions of emerging adulthood and effectiveness of IDEA for measuring these in US samples, results from non-US samples revealed important cultural differences in how emerging adulthood is experienced. The current study tests the extent to which emerging adulthood is experienced by Dutch young people, and the relevance and validity of the IDEA for a general urban population sample from the Netherlands. We examined differences between socioeconomic and ethnic groups within this population. The results revealed that certain aspects of the Dutch emerging adulthood experience are different from the USA. In addition, there are small but significant differences between Dutch socioeconomic and ethnic groups in how this period of life is experienced. Economic and cultural explanations for these differences are discussed.

The Effects of Incarceration on Longitudinal Trajectories of Employment A Follow-Up in High-Risk Youth From Ages 23 to 32

Life-course theories expect imprisonment to negatively influence a person’s employment prospects. Incarceration not only instantaneously interrupts a number of life-course domains but may also reduce future opportunities to reconnect to them. This article analyzes the effects of incarceration on employment by using observational data on the employment careers from age 23 up to age 32 in 270 high-risk males. All men had been treated for delinquency and problematic behavior in a juvenile justice institution in the Netherlands. First, we investigate whether specific employment trajectories can be distinguished within the overall employment pattern in this sample. Second, controlling for selection into both incarceration and low-employment participation, we investigate the effect of incarceration on future employment over and above the effect of being convicted.

WORK, INCOME SUPPORT, AND CRIME IN THE DUTCH WELFARE STATE: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY FOLLOWING VULNERABLE YOUTH INTO ADULTHOOD*

Life-course criminological research has consistently suggested that employment can reduce criminal behavior. However, it is unclear whether the financial aspects of employment or the social control that inheres in employment best explains the relationship between employment and reduced offending. By using longitudinal information on a sample of men and women (N = 540) who were institutionalized in a Dutch juvenile justice institution in the 1990s, this study examines the effects of employment as well as the different types of income support on crime. Random- and fixed-effects models show that for men, both work and income support are associated with a reduction in the rate of offending. For women, however, although employment is correlated with a lower offending rate, receiving income support, and in particular disability benefits, is correlated with a higher offending rate. The findings support both theories that stress the financial motivation for crime as well as theories that emphasize the importance of informal social control for reducing offending.

Bullying and (re)offending: Results from three samples in the Netherlands.

AIM To investigate the relationship between bullying and (re)offending. METHOD Carrying out bivariate analyses and multivariate analyses (controlling for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), parental abuse and neglect and impulsivity) on three large high-risk groups (male and female juveniles with serious behaviour problems and a group of juvenile sex offenders). RESULTS Only the relationship between bullying victimisation and re-offending in juvenile sex offenders is significant. CONCLUSIONS Addressing bullying as a risk factor for re-offending seems important in treatment of juvenile sex offenders.

Associations in criminal behaviour for married males and females at high risk of offending

Using a sample of males and females at high risk of offending, this study examines associations in criminal behaviour for married partners, over and above pre-existing levels of assortative mating in offending, as well as other individual and family characteristics. Interactions between partner’s criminal offending were analysed during first marriage using a longitudinal prospective design. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis for multiple failure-time data showed that both males and females have an immediate increased likelihood of committing an offence when the partner offends. Prolonged associations in offending were observed only for females up until the third month after their partner offended. For both males and females, results showed no long-term associations in partner’s offending.

Desisting from Crime in Emerging Adulthood Adult Roles and the Maturity Gap

Objectives: Test whether Moffitt’s theory of adolescence-limited offenders, which contends that as young people enter adult roles they exit the “maturity gap” of adolescence and desist from crime, still applies given the changed nature of the early adult years. Examine whether spending time in adult roles remains a driver of desistance, and whether today’s emerging adults are at risk of experiencing a maturity gap between how adult they feel and the reality of their social situation. Methods: Using longitudinal data from a Dutch general population sample aged 18 to 24 years, fixed-effects models were run examining the effect of within-person changes in time spent in adult roles on self-reported delinquency and moderation of this effect by feelings of adultness. Results: The more time spent in adult roles, the less delinquency respondents consequently reported. This effect was moderated: When spending more time in adult roles and feeling more adult, higher delinquency was reported than when spending more time in adult roles and feeling less adult. Conclusions: Today’s emerging adults desist from delinquency in response to taking on adult roles. Possible interpretations for the unexpected qualification of this conclusion are discussed, as well as limitations such as the simplicity of our feeling adult measure.