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Age-Graded Theory of Informal Social Control

Definition

Sampson and Laub's theory that the strength of a person's bonds to family, school and work shapes offending at every stage of life, with the relevant bonds changing as a person ages.

Related terms

Adolescence-Limited Offender
In Moffitt's taxonomy, an offender whose antisocial conduct begins and ends within adolescence, driven by peer context rather than by an early-emerging...
Integrated Theory
A theory that deliberately combines constructs from two or more existing theories, such as strain, control and social learning, into a single...
Life-Course Criminology
The study of offending as a trajectory across a person's life, focused on onset, persistence, escalation and desistance rather than on a...
Life-Course-Persistent Offender
In Moffitt's taxonomy, an offender whose antisocial conduct begins in early childhood and tends to continue, in some form, across the life...
Turning Point
A life event, such as a stable marriage, military service or steady employment, that redirects an offending trajectory by creating new social...

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