Christoffer Carlsson

We study the criminal histories of 14,608 males and females in a full Stockholm birth cohort born in 1953 to age 64. Using an update of The Stockholm Birth Cohort Study data, we explore the amount of crimes recorded in the cohort before and after the advent of adulthood. We break down the age/crime curve into separate parameters, including onset, duration, and termination. Throughout, we utilize the large number of females (49%; n = 7 161) in the cohort, and compare long-term patterns of male and female criminal careers. Next, we focus on adulthood, and explore the existence and parameters of the adult-onset offender and its contribution to the overall volume of crime in the cohort. While crime peaks in adolescence, the main bulk of crimes in the cohort occurred after the dawning of adulthood. Nearly half of all male, and more than two-thirds of all female, crimes in the cohort occurred after age 25. In the case of violence, the majority of offences — around two-thirds for both gend...

The current study analyzed the association between a final paternal conviction that occurred sometime 10 years prior to birth through age 14 and subsequent child conviction risk to age 25. We used Swedish register-based data on a two-generation dataset originating from a parental generation born in 1953. We employed a combination of population-averaged models that controlled for measured confounding together with an analysis of full siblings that ruled out unmeasured confounding shared between full siblings. The results showed that boys, but not girls, who were exposed to a paternal conviction during upbringing had an increased risk of being convicted themselves, net of measured and unmeasured familial confounds. There was, however, little indication for an age-effect at the time of a final paternal conviction, and there were no significant differences in violent crime between exposure-discordant siblings. The results provide evidence for an effect of the exposure to a paternal conv...

This study’s point of departure is the current debate over the ability to make prospective long-term predictions of criminal offending based on childhood risk factors. We begin by constructing groups based on cumulative childhood risk and measure their subsequent criminal career outcomes. The results show clear differences in adult offending but also considerable heterogeneity, suggesting that the relationship between risk factors and individuals’ subsequent offending or non-offending is complex and in need of closer study. We therefore identify individuals in the low- and high-risk groups who did not develop the criminal careers that could be expected from their risk scores and, using deviant case analysis, qualitatively analyze their life histories. Together, these cases inform us of the importance of the dynamics of risk, human agency, and the life course, as well as the historical influences under which their lives unfolded—features of social life that could in no way be predict...

Varje år söker sig framför allt unga människor till olika typer av våldsbejakande extremistiska miljöer, så som vikt makt-miljöer, islamistiska miljöer och antifascistiska grupper. Skälen till varför man går med är många och varierande, för vissa är miljöns gemenskap och sammanhållning avgörande, för andra är ideologin betydelsefull.

De flesta lämnar förr eller senare dessa miljöer. I en grundlig genomgång av den forskning som finns på området söker denna rapport beskriva vilka faktorer, händelser och processer som leder fram till just utträdet. När individens egen vilja att lämna kan krokas fast i yttre faktorer, som sociala relationer eller ekonomiska resurser, blir utträdet möjligt. Utträdet bör därmed förstås som en både subjektiv och social process.

Rapporten avslutas med ett antal riktlinjer för hur samhället kan hjälpa individer i en utträdesprocess.

Rapporten är skriven på uppdrag av Nationella samordnaren mot våldsbejakande extremism.

In this chapter we adopt a life-course perspective as an overarching framework for understanding how certain forms of drug use can interact with masculinity, heterosexuality and age in the creation and re-creation of men's identities. We do this through a close analysis of life history narratives, conducted with men within the frame of the Stockholm Life-Course Project.

In life-course criminology, when gender has been the focus of study, it has predominantly been treated as a variable. Studies that explore the gendered nature of criminal careers through the lived experiences of offenders are rare, even though these studies can make important contributions to our understanding of crime and the life course. Analyzing qualitative data, this article uses life-history narratives of a small sample of male juvenile delinquents (N = 25), born in 1969–1974, to explore the possible link among masculinities, persistence, and desistance from crime. The findings of the study suggest that processes of persistence and desistance are imbued with age-specific norms of what it means to “be a man” and successfully do masculinity in different stages of life. Analyzing these gender-specific practices gives a deepened understanding of processes that underlie the offenders’ lives as they go through stages of continuity and change in crime. The findings of the study further suggest a complex intersection between gendered biographies and gendered structures, with fruitful contributions to life-course criminology. The implications of these findings are discussed.

This article explores the concept of “intermittency” and uses qualitative life history narratives with male offenders from The Stockholm Life Course Project to distinguish between two qualitatively different forms of intermittent offending. Findings suggest that one form of intermittency can be characterized by “breaks” and “pauses” in offending, where the offender for a period of time “holds up” but without attempting to commit to any long-term change in trajectory. The second form can best be understood as incomplete or aborted attempts at desistance, where attempts to change are present but not realized. Perceived or experienced failure to enter conventional roles and engage in conventional practices is highly relevant to understand these attempts. The intermittent zigzag patterns of offending observed in quantitative studies of criminal careers can thus actually entail qualitatively different life course processes of continuity and change. Implications for policy and future research are highlighted.

Processes of within-individual change in offending and desistance from crime can be very complex, often involving multiple, context-specific processes. But even in a generous reading of much research on turning points, while this is theoretically stated or inferred, it is less often shown or illustrated in empirical cases. I explore processes of change in offending with the help of the concept of ‘turning points’, through life story interviews conducted in the Stockholm Project, trying to make use of the possibilities inherent in qualitative inquiry. I show how life course processes and the turning points that emerge within them are often interdependent on each other, emerging in very context-specific circumstances, and need to be studied and understood and such. Future research areas are suggested.