Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T13:43:40.810Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Life-Course Persistent and Adolescence-Limited Antisocial Males: Longitudinal Followup to Adulthood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2009

Terrie E. Moffitt
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison Institute of Psychiatry, London
Avshalom Caspi
Affiliation:
University of Otago, New Zealand
David M. Stoff
Affiliation:
National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland
Elizabeth J. Susman
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
Get access

Summary

This chapter tests and refines a developmental taxonomy of antisocial behavior, which proposed two primary hypothetical prototypes: life-course persistent offenders whose antisocial behavior begins in childhood and continues worsening thereafter, versus adolescence-limited offenders whose antisocial behavior begins in adolescence and desists in young adulthood (Moffitt, 1993). Two of our previous reports have described clinically defined groups of childhood-onset and adolescence-onset antisocial youths in the Dunedin birth cohort during childhood (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001) and at age 18 (Moffitt, Caspi, Dickson, Silva, & Stanton, 1996). Recently we followed up the cohort at age 26, and here we describe how the two groups of males fared in adulthood. In so doing we test a hypothesis critical to the theory: that childhood-onset, but not adolescent-onset, antisocial behavior is associated in adulthood with antisocial personality, violence, and continued serious antisocial behavior that expands into maladjustment in work life and victimization of partners and children (Moffitt, 1993).

THE TWO PROTOTYPES AND THEIR PREDICTED ADULT OUTCOMES

According to the theory, life-course persistent antisocials are few, persistent, and pathological. Adolescence-limited antisocials are common, relatively temporary, and near normative. The developmental typology hypothesized that childhood-onset versus adolescent-onset conduct problems have different etiologies. In addition, the typology differed from other developmental crime theories by predicting different outcome pathways for the two types across the adult life-course (Caspi & Moffitt, 1995; Moffitt, 1993, 1994, 1997).

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alnaes, R., & Torgersen, S. (1988). The relationship between DSM-III symptom disorders (Axis I) and personality disorders (Axis II) in an outpatient population. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 78, 485–492CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood. American Psychologist, 55, 469–480CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arnett, J. J., & Taber, S. (1994). Adolescence terminable and interminable: When does adolescence end?Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 23, 517–537CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bardone, A. M., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Dickson, N., & Silva, P. A. (1996). Adult mental health and social outcomes of adolescent girls with depression and conduct disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 811–829CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bardone, A. M., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Dickson, N., Stanton, W. R., & Silva, P. A. (1998). Adult physical health outcomes of adolescent girls with conduct disorder, depression, and anxiety. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 37, 594–601CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blumstein, A., Cohen, J., & Farrington, D. P. (1988). Criminal career research: Its value for criminology. Criminology, 26, 1–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bukowski, W. M., Sippola, L. K., & Newcomb, A. F. (2000). Variations in patterns of attraction to same-and other-sex peers during early adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 36, 147–154CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caspi, A., Bem, D. J., & Elder, G. H. Jr. (1989). Continuities and consequences of interactional styles across the life-course. Journal of Personality, 57, 375–406CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T. E. (1995). The continuity of maladaptive behavior: From description to explanation in the study of antisocial behavior. In Cicchetti, D. & Cohen, D. (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology (Vol. 2; pp. 472–511). New York: WileyGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: ErlbaumGoogle Scholar
Fagan, J., & Freeman, R. B. (1999). Crime and work. Crime and justice: A review of research, 25, 225–290CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farrington, D. P., Gallagher, B., Morley, L., St. Ledger, R. J., & West, D. (1988). Are there any successful men from criminogenic backgrounds?Psychiatry, 51, 116–130CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fergusson, D. M., Horwood, L. J., & Nagin, D. S. (2000). Offending trajectories in a New Zealand birth cohort. Criminology, 38, 525–552CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, R. D. (1996). Psychopathy: A clinical construct whose time has come. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 23, 25–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeglum-Bartusch, D., Lynam, D., Moffitt, T. E., & Silva, P. A. (1997). Is age important: Testing general versus developmental theories of antisocial behavior. Criminology, 35, 13–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kratzer, L., & Hodgins, S. (1999). A typology of offenders: A test of Moffitt's theory among males and females from childhood to age 30. Criminal Behaviour & Mental Health, 9, 57–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, T. E. (1990). Juvenile delinquency and attention-deficit disorder: Developmental trajectories from age three to fifteen. Child Development, 61, 893–910CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, T. E. (1993). “Life-course-persistent” and “adolescence-limited” antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy. Psychological Review, 100, 674–701CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moffitt, T. E. (1994). Natural histories of delinquency. In Weitekamp, E. & Kerner, H. J. (Eds.), Cross-national longitudinal research on human development and criminal behavior (pp. 3–61). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, T. E. (1997). Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent offending: A complementary pair of developmental theories. In Thornberry, T. (Ed.), Advances in criminological theory: Developmental theories of crime and delinquency (pp. 11–54). London: Transaction PressGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, T. E. (2003). Life-course persistent and adolescence-limited antisocial behaviour: A research review and a research agenda. In Lahey, B., Moffitt, T. & Caspi, A. (Eds.). The causes of conduct disorder and serious juvenile delinquency. New York: GuilfordGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, T. E., & Caspi, A. (2001). Childhood predictors differentiate life-course persistent and adolescence-limited pathways, among males and females. Development and Psychopathology, 13, 355–375CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Dickson, N., Silva, P. A., & Stanton, W. (1996). Childhood-onset versus adolescent-onset antisocial conduct in males: Natural history from age 3 to 18. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 399–424CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Harrington, H., & Milne, B. (2002). Males on the life-course persistent and adolescence-limited antisocial pathways: Follow-up at age 26 years. Development & Psychopathology, 14, 179–206CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Rutter, M., & Silva, P. A. (2001). Sex differences in antisocial behaviour: Conduct disorder, delinquency, and violence in the Dunedin longitudinal study. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, T. E., Lynam, D., & Silva, P. A. (1994). Neuropsychological tests predict persistent male delinquency. Criminology, 32, 101–124CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagin, D. S., Farrington, D. P., & Moffitt, T. E. (1995). Life-course trajectories of different types of offenders. Criminology, 33, 111–139CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, M. E., Harris, G. T., & Cormier, C. A. (1992). An evaluation of a maximum security therapeutic community for psychopaths and other mentally disordered offenders. Law and Human Behavior, 16, 399–412CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, B. W., & Delvecchio, W. (2000) Consistency of personality across the life-course: A quantitative review of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 3–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robins, L. N. (1966). Deviant children grown up. Baltimore: Williams & WilkinsGoogle Scholar
Sampson, R. J. & Laub, J. H. (1993). Crime in the making: Pathways and turning points through life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University PressGoogle Scholar
Scott, E. S., & Grisso, T. (1997). The evolution of adolescence: A developmental perspective on juvenile justice reform. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 88, 137–189CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silva, P. A. & Stanton, W. R. (Eds.). (1996). From child to adult: The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. Auckland: Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Stattin, H., Romelsjo, A., & Stenbacka, M. (1997). Personal resources as modifiers of the risk for future criminality. British Journal of Criminology, 37, 198–223CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tibbetts, S., & Piquero, A. (1999). The influence of gender, low birth weight and disadvantaged environment on predicting early onset of offending: A test of Moffitt's Interactional Hypothesis. Criminology, 37, 843–878CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×