Theoretical and Practical Achievements of Developmental Criminology

The defining feature of developmental criminology is the focus on offending in relation to changes over time in individuals and their life circumstances. Childhood and adolescence are the most central issues of developmental criminology and most researches are focused in practice on them. Developmental criminologists are concerned with questions of continuity and changes in behavior, including the onset of and desistence of offending or a criminal career, and patterns of offending over time. This orientation of criminology, using the achievements of different schools and theories, is able to offer the most practical solutions for preventing and combating crime through the full life course, from infancy to late adulthood. The main policies in this area include providing a strong basis for understanding young offenders, early interventions before the first opportunities to commit and how both the criminal justice system and social service providers should approach the task to assist this age group, sooner than appearing before the court. The present article is a brief concentration on this branch of criminology and its different aspects.