3.3 Age and Crime
One of the few universally accepted facts in criminology is the fact that crime has a strong relationship with age, which is characterised by a typical pattern: the ‘age-crime curve’ (McAra & McVie, 2012). For both men and women (Ulmer & Steffensmeier, 2014), the crime rate increases from the minimum age of responsibility – which is ten in the UK – to a peak in the late teenage years; before declining in adulthood, first quickly and then more slowly; finally trailing off into old age (Farrington, 1986).
Since the recent wave of Polish immigrants consists mainly of young individuals (Bell et al., 2010), a possible higher total arrest rate could be explained by the disproportionate presence of this typically more crime-prone …show more content…
Age-crime curves can vary due to a range of factors: over time (the peak age has declined since the first curve by Quetelet in 1831), between countries or jurisdictions (different recording practices or criminal justice system peculiarities can influence the shape), by gender (peaks are shallower for women than for men), by type of data (convictions data peak later than arrest data, which peak later than self-report data), and by type of offence (violent crimes peak later than non-violent crimes) (ibid.; McAra & McVie, 2012). This last phenomenon, according to Farrington, probably reflects crime switching by established offenders, instead of a new group starting their criminal careers (1986). Other variations by type of crime – drugs and alcohol offences, for instance, peak even later (Fagan & Western, 2005; Laub & Sampson, 2003) – occur because the “structure of illegitimate opportunities increases rather than disappears with age” (Ulmer & Steffensmeier, 2014, p. …show more content…
The theory proposed that new immigrants would move into the cheap zone of transition and migrate outwards as they became “economically established” (Bottoms, 2007, p. 531). Shaw and McKay found that a large proportion of young offenders derived from this zone, and argued this was a result of social disorganisation: “a migrant population with shifting moral values, high levels of poverty, and low levels of community cohesion produced teenagers prone to commit crime” (Carrabine et al., p.
One of the few universally accepted facts in criminology is the fact that crime has a strong relationship with age, which is characterised by a typical pattern: the ‘age-crime curve’ (McAra & McVie, 2012). For both men and women (Ulmer & Steffensmeier, 2014), the crime rate increases from the minimum age of responsibility – which is ten in the UK – to a peak in the late teenage years; before declining in adulthood, first quickly and then more slowly; finally trailing off into old age (Farrington, 1986).
Since the recent wave of Polish immigrants consists mainly of young individuals (Bell et al., 2010), a possible higher total arrest rate could be explained by the disproportionate presence of this typically more crime-prone …show more content…
Age-crime curves can vary due to a range of factors: over time (the peak age has declined since the first curve by Quetelet in 1831), between countries or jurisdictions (different recording practices or criminal justice system peculiarities can influence the shape), by gender (peaks are shallower for women than for men), by type of data (convictions data peak later than arrest data, which peak later than self-report data), and by type of offence (violent crimes peak later than non-violent crimes) (ibid.; McAra & McVie, 2012). This last phenomenon, according to Farrington, probably reflects crime switching by established offenders, instead of a new group starting their criminal careers (1986). Other variations by type of crime – drugs and alcohol offences, for instance, peak even later (Fagan & Western, 2005; Laub & Sampson, 2003) – occur because the “structure of illegitimate opportunities increases rather than disappears with age” (Ulmer & Steffensmeier, 2014, p. …show more content…
The theory proposed that new immigrants would move into the cheap zone of transition and migrate outwards as they became “economically established” (Bottoms, 2007, p. 531). Shaw and McKay found that a large proportion of young offenders derived from this zone, and argued this was a result of social disorganisation: “a migrant population with shifting moral values, high levels of poverty, and low levels of community cohesion produced teenagers prone to commit crime” (Carrabine et al., p.