# Contemporary Developments in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development: David Farrington's Legacy

## TL;DR

The Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development has been expanded with new data and digitized records, enhancing its value for understanding criminal behavior.

## Contribution

The paper highlights efforts to digitize historical records and collect new data from participants at age 70.

## Key findings

- A high proportion of men interviewed at age 70 self-reported an offence.
- Digitizing records and new data collection expand the study's research potential.
- The CSDD is reinforced as a leading source on criminal behavior development.

## Abstract

The Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD) is one of the most important prospective criminological longitudinal studies in the world. This now‐famous study of 411 boys, followed up from age 8 (in 1961) to 48 with in‐person social interviews and up to 61 in official records, has produced an immense range and depth of knowledge.

The aim of the current paper is to describe recent efforts that have been made to both secure the data available from the CSDD by digitising the historical paper records and to obtain new data by undertaking a new wave of data collection with the men at about age 70.

Both the archiving of paper records and the new interviews significantly expand the depth and range of research questions that the CSDD can address. A surprisingly high proportion of the selected samples of men interviewed at about age 70 self‐reported an offence.

These new developments solidify the status of the CSDD, David Farrington's legacy, as a world‐leading source of information about the development and maintenance of criminal and antisocial behaviour.