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Cited by 384

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 15 of the 15 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Age and the Distribution of Crime

Steffensmeier, Darrell J., Allan, Emilie Andersen, Harer, Miles D., Streifel, Cathy·1989·American Journal of Sociology

Abstract

This paper examines the age/crime distribution to determine whether there is a single pattern that is constant over time and across crime categories. Using arrest data of the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports for the periods of 1940, 1960, and 1980, the article compares parameters including age of maximum criminality, overall shape of the age-crime curve, and rate of decline from the peak age. Not only is there variation by crime type when the age-crime statistics for 1980 are examined; there is considerable change between 1940 and 1980. The most significant change has been the progressive concentration of offending among the young; this suggests increasing discontinuity in the transition from adolescence to adulthood in modern times. Variations found in the age distribution for different crime types support the traditional sociological view that, although crime rates typically decline throughout life after the initial rise in adolescence, certain crimes peak later, or decline more slowly, or both.

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Crossref · 10.1086/229069

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Metadata

Authors
Steffensmeier, D. J., Allan, E. A., Harer, M. D., & Streifel, C.
Venue
American Journal of Sociology
Published
1989-01
Volume
94
Issue
4
Pages
803-831
ISSN
  • 0002-9602 (ISSN-L)
  • 1537-5390
OpenAlex
W2102542682
Cited by
384
References
15
FWCI
38.16
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Age and the Distribution of Crime. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1086/229069
The paper
Steffensmeier, D. J., Allan, E. A., Harer, M. D., & Streifel, C. (1989). Age and the Distribution of Crime. American Journal of Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1086/229069

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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.