Key Issues in Criminal Career Research
New Analyses of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development

"This is the 5th book reporting the world-renowned Cambridge longitudinal Study of Delinquent Development, and in my view the best! We senior scientists who learned our first criminology facts from the CSDD will want to own this book, as will students newly learning criminology. This book is organized for busy readers' convenience, chapters are very concise, and each is summarized with a list of its new findings. Each chapter ends with a list of as-yet unanswered questions about crime; giving readers great ideas for new research projects! This book is brilliant on theory, it masterfully integrates developmental, life-course, and crime-careers theories, making sense of them all. "Key issues" systematically examines fresh data on onset age, offender prevalence, violence specialization, crime seriousness, career duration, offending frequency, co-offending, chronicity, and developmental trajectories of crime careers. "Key issues.." is the best book about crime I have read in 5 years."
Terrie Moffitt, Institute of Psychiatry

"The criminal career paradigm has shaped the empirical study of delinquency and crime for the past quarter century. Using data from The Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, Piquero, Farrington, and Blumstein present the most thorough and sophisticated investigation of this paradigm to date. Their analyses both replicate earlier core observations and present new, insightful results that advance our understanding of crime across the life-course. The totality of their findings is a quantum leap forward."
Terence P. Thornberry, University of Colorado

"... a major event in criminal career research. The book contains fresh, new quantitative analyses of the offending data derived from the 411 males in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development - one of the venerable data sets in criminology. The book is also the product of three of the most formidable talents in the area... Key Issues in Criminal Career Research is an excellent resource for undergraduates and graduate students who are new to the area and an informative piece of scholarship for researchers. The down-to-earth writing style and presentation benefit all audiences."
Criminal Justice Review

"The breadth and depth of the material contained in this study are impressive, making this essential reading for anyone interested in the development of antisocial behavior and criminal careers."
Brian L. Wilcox, PsycCritiques