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MATURATIONAL REFORM
Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2011
Maturational reform is the observation that involvement in crime tends to decrease
as people age.
Maturational reform is of course another word for change in behavior over time and
for change in behavior with advancing age.
A visit to any prison will confirm maturational reform as would the tracking of 10
year olds crime involvements as they go through adolescence and into adulthood.
One of the first social scientists to address the question of personal reform was
Adolphe Quetelet. Quetelet (1833) argues that the penchant for crime diminishes with age
'due to the enfeeblement of physical vitality and the passions.'
Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck (1940) develop this into their theory of 'maturational
reform', in which they argue that intrinsic criminality naturally declines after the age
of 25.
The Gluecks suggest that with the 'sheer passage of time' juvenile delinquents
'grow out' of this transitory phase and 'burn out' physiologically. Significantly, they
conclude, 'Ageing is the only factor which emerges as significant in the reformative
process.'
Although the Gluecks explicitly urge future researchers to 'dissect maturation
into its components', Shover points out that criminology's 'explanatory efforts have not
progressed appreciably beyond the Gluecks' work.'
Maturational reform continues to be the most influential theory of desistance in
criminology. - britsoccrim.org/volume2/003.pdf
Delinquency Treatment and Intervention
Before examining specific programs, a comment about "maturational
reform" is in order. Maturational reform is the notion that kids grow out of
delinquency. Wolfgang et al.'s (1972, 1987) extensive studies with two cohorts of
delinquents in Philadelphia indicated that incarceration was not the best predictor of
desistance from delinquency. In effect, the best predictor was age. It was found that
after three contacts with the police (i.e., arrests) over 90 percent of the youth desist
from further delinquency. It is projected that such desistance has little to do with any
programs in which the youth might have participated but rather simply relates to the
transitional changes in their lives as they age. - justice.gc.ca
Self-reported offending, maturational reform, and the Easterlin hypothesis
Scott Menard and Delbert S. Elliott
Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado, 80309 Boulder, Colorado
Journal Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Publisher Springer Netherlands
Abstract The maturational reform hypothesis and the Easterlin cohort size hypothesis are
used to specify models in which age, period, and cohort effects on self-reported crime and
delinquency are estimated. Curvilinear effects, logarithmic transformations, and the
distinction between prevalence and frequency of offending are considered. The maturational
reform hypothesis is supported for general delinquency but not for serious (Index)
delinquency, for which there appears to be a steady decline in the behavior with age. The
Easterlin hypothesis is supported for both general and Index delinquency. Theoretical,
methodological, and substantive implications of the results are discussed.
“Some Get Better, Some Don't: The Issue of Maturational Reform,” Chapter
Eight in Final Report of the Marion County Youth Study, National Institute of Mental
Health, University of Oregon, Eugene. 1981
“The Adolescent Experience and Maturational Reform: Assessing the Empirical
Implications of Two Delinquency Theories,” presented at the annual meeting of the
Society for the Study of Social Problems, Toronto, August. 1981
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