Establishing the Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology: Editorial Introduction

Abstract

It is indeed our pleasure to provide a welcome to the inaugural issue of the Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology (JDLCC). We believe that a journal dedicated to this specific area of enquiry is timely if not somewhat overdue. The importance of employing an age-graded approach in criminology was recently well argued by Francis Cullen on receiving the American Society of Criminology’s Sutherland Award. Cullen, in his 2010 Sutherland address, encouraged a paradigm shift away from what he termed adolescent-limited criminology (ALC). He argued that the ALC framework, among other things, tended to ignore individual differences in offenders, tended to reject the epidemiology of crime in favour of making new theories and was based on cross-sectional self-report surveys of (mainly school based) adolescents. Cullen argued that to move forward, criminologists need to accept that developmental and lifecourse criminology is criminology. That it is not just another perspective that competes with traditional theories but rather that it should replace the dominant ALC framework. He argued that it is important to examine not only what happens during adolescence but also before and after adolescence. He was careful to note that he was not arguing that other theories do not matter but rather that existing theories should be age graded and viewed within a wider life course and developmental perspective. As co-editors of the JDLCC, we are proud to say that we wholeheartedly agree with Francis Cullen and this inclusive perspective is the approach that will be embraced for this new journal. It is worth acknowledging that despite the rapid rise in research on topics of central significance for understanding crime and criminal offending in a developmental and life-course context, the range of academic outlets with a specific focus in this area have been limited. Indeed, before the JDLCC was established, there was limited scope among existing journals to explore the key elements of developmental and lifecourse criminology in the detail necessary to expand knowledge in this area. It is our hope and indeed our intention to amplify this opportunity, through the JDLCC, for researchers interested in expanding this area of knowledge for the field. J Dev Life Course Criminology (2015) 1:1–3 DOI 10.1007/s40865-015-0006-1