Taking the developmental pathways approach to understanding and preventing antisocial behavour

Abstract

In this chapter, I focus on the meaning of the pathways imagery from a contemporary developmental perspective and examine the contribution of a developmental pathways approach to understanding how young people become involved in crime. From a developmental perspective a ‘pathway’ focuses attention on people’s experiences. As a heuristic device for interpreting life events, it allows researchers to make sense of how patterns of criminal behaviour start, progress and stop. Such a developmental perspective undergirds crime prevention strategies by supplying a general normative description of the life course and a way of analysing both typical and atypical patterns of experience in relation to n..