#LONGITUDINAL STUDIES SERIES#

In what follows, longitudinal research in criminology is reviewed with an emphasis on prospective cohort designs. Trend studies look at change over time in a total population or sample that is generalizable to that population.

#LONGITUDINAL STUDIES SERIES#

Cohort studies involve a particular group of individuals that are studied over time, such as a вЂњbirth cohortвЂќ or a вЂњprison cohort.вЂќ Time-series studies involve a series of measurements taken at periodic time intervals in order to measure the impact of a change (such as a policy intervention) by comparing before- and after- measurements of the phenomena of interest. Panel studies look at multiple waves of data collection using same measures and sample. Different types of longitudinal studies can be used for each of these aims. Longitudinal research in criminology can be used for a variety of purposes, including quantifying trends in human behavior over time, describing the progression of life events, identifying patterns of behavior change, testing theories of crime causation, and evaluating the impact of interventions including criminal justice policy. This can be contrasted with cross-sectional data, which records information about the units of analysis at a particular point in time. Broadly, longitudinal research is research that involves longitudinal data, that is, data with a time dimension.

Longitudinal studies