1 Pathways and Crime Prevention: A Difficult Marriage?

For at least a quarter of a century the study of the developmental origins of crime and delinquency has been, in the words of Nagin and Tremblay (2005, p. 873), “both an important and contentious topic in criminology. ” Indeed, as these researchers note, the contemporary international wave of research within this genre is “testimony to the central position of what has come to be called developmental criminology ” (p. 874). We estimate that since 1990 the journal Criminology has devoted at least one third of its articles to some aspect of developmental criminology. Many other journals, broader perhaps in their theoretical and methodological orientations than Criminology, are also now devoting considerable space to themes such as the effects of child abuse and family violence on children and young people’s personal development, or the influence of poverty and social exclusion on pathways towards adulthood and perhaps toward crime. Our aim with this book is to add to this growing body of knowledge, particularly from an Australian and United Kingdom perspective, and to highlight some important theoretical, methodological and policy debates. Drafts of all the chapters wer