Summary: | The relationship between crime control policies and fundamental parameters of the criminal career, such as career length, participation in offenses, and frequency and seriousness of offenses committed, is examined in this data collection. The investigators coded, recoded, and computerized parts of the raw data from Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck's three-wave, matched sample study of juvenile and adult criminal behavior, extracting the criminal histories of the 500 delinquents (officially defined) from the Glueck study. Data were originally collected by the Gluecks in 1940 through psychiatric interviews with subjects, parent and teacher reports, and official records obtained from police, court, and correctional files. The subjects were subsequently interviewed again between 1949 and 1965 at or near the age of 25, and again at or near the age of 32. The data coded by Laub and Sampson include only information collected from official records. The data address in part (1) what effects probation, incarceration, and parole have on the length of criminal career and frequency of criminal incidents of an offender, (2) how the effects of criminal control policies vary in relation to the length of sentence, type of offense, and age of the offender, (3) which factors in criminal control policy correlate with criminal career termination, (4) how well age of first offense predicts the length of criminal career, and (5) how age of offender relates to type of offense committed. Every incident of arrest up to the age of 32 for each respondent (ranging from 1 to 51 arrests) is recorded in the data file. Variables include the dates of arrest, up to three charges associated with the arrest, court disposition, and starting and ending dates of probation, incarceration, and parole associated with the arrest.
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