Adult Onset Offending. Perspectives for Future Research

The aim of this work is to examine the early predictors of the later criminal career. Late criminal onset means beginning offending at age 21 or thereafter. The emphasis on individual differences, on the degree of consistency and continuity in behaviour over time (the concepts of relative stability and absolute change), on the effects of psychological and mental problems on later maladjustment has proven to be beneficial to the comprehension of adult onset offending. Two main points have emerged from late onset research. Risk assessment. Early prevention. As different factors are responsible for promoting early or late delinquent onsets, it is paramount to include psychological dynamic factors in the assessment of risk that are responsible for a delayed criminal onset. Adult onset complexity seems to be embedded in the psychosocial reality of the offenders: it lies in the inter-relationship between personal problems, neuroticism and anxiety and the larger context within which individuals live and which may sabotage the construction of their future. If internalised problems predict late onset offending, then internalised problems should be targeted to reduce late onset offending. It is from early intervention that we can divert (or save) children from a life in crime.