Citation

Savage J, Vila B. J. Appl. Dev. Psychol. 2002; 23(1): 51-82.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The General Evolutionary Ecological Paradigm for understanding criminal behavior [Criminology 32 (1994) 501.] predicts that social programs which improve the quality of such things as maternal and infant health care, parenting, and education will tend to reduce population-level crime rates 10-15 years later when children exposed to those conditions reach adolescence and early adulthood. This prediction--more simply referred to as the "lagged nurturance hypothesis"--is theoretically important because it integrates population-level perspectives on crime with the large body of microlevel research linking child development with delinquency. We test the lagged nurturance hypothesis using an extensive set of cross-national data. Despite inherent measurement and methodological difficulties associated with cross-national research that weaken statistical power, our findings support the lagged nurturance hypothesis. Implications for future research and public policy are discussed.