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Methods: We rely on negative binomial regression analyses and group-based trajectory modeling of data drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to determine the relationship between future event expectations and criminal engagement. We assess continued criminal involvement through self-reported arrests and offending variety.

Results: We find that future expectations regarding negative events (arrest, victimization, and drunkenness) are associated with future self-reported arrest while future positive expectations (parenthood, education, and employment) are unrelated to future offending behavior. Higher expectations of being arrested and getting drunk in the following year were associated with a greater likelihood of being classified as a persister relative to a nonoffender. We also find that Blacks are more likely to be classified as persisters. Yet, future expectations in late adolescence appear to be poor predictors of whether an individual will desist from offending over the long term.

Methods: Multiple sequence and cluster analyses were conducted using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (n = 8984) to describe the trajectories young adults take through the transition to adulthood. Multinomial logistic regression was used to predict cluster membership by adolescent criminal behavior and arrest history.

Results: Contemporary delinquent adolescents are significantly less likely to experience traditional sources of informal control (e.g., marriage, full-time employment) compared with their non-delinquent counterparts and past cohorts, and those who do experience similar age-graded controls tend to do so later during the transition to adulthood. Crime and arrests during adolescence are also more consequential in determining partnering and employment trajectories for women compared with men.

Methods: Participants for this study were 2586 (1290 boys, 1296 girls) members of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child (NLSY-C). CU traits and LSC were measured when participants were 9 to 10 years of age, child self-disclosure was measured when participants were 11 to 12 years of age, and delinquency was measured when participants were 13 to 14 years of age.

Results: Consistent with predictions, the pathway running from CU traits to child self-disclosure to delinquency was significant whereas the pathway running from LSC to child self-disclosure to delinquency was non-significant. Contrary to predictions, the two pathways were not significantly different from one another.

Methods: Participants for the first study were 411 boys from the Cambridge Study of Delinquency Development, and participants for the second study were 3817 children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child (NLSY-C) sample.

Results: In the first study (Cambridge), peer-rated popularity (peer rejection) and teacher-rated low self-control were cross-lagged, with results showing that while low self-control predicted peer rejection, peer rejection did not predict low self-control. In the second study (NLSY-C), findings revealed that (1) peer rejection predicted deviant peer associations but not vice versa, (2) delinquency and reactive criminal thinking mediated the peer rejection–peer delinquency relationship, and (3) negative affect (depression, anxiety, loneliness) alone did not mediate the peer rejection–peer delinquency relationship nor did it alter the indirect effects of delinquency and reactive criminal thinking on this relationship.

Conclusions: The results of these two studies suggest that theoretical integration is possible and that reactive criminal thinking plays an important role in mediating relationships involving such traditional criminological variables as low self-control, strain created by peer rejection, and peer delinquency.