Age differences in the frequency of criminal behaviour. What such a curve shows is a rapid increase in deviant behaviour during adolescence, followed by an equally rapid decrease in such behavior (see figure below). Its onset has been attributed to increases in testosterone levels, and to environmental influences such as deviant families, deviant peers, and the media. While most political and social scientists agree that the aggregate age-crime curve reaches a peak during late adolescence and declines rapidly thereafter, there are ongoing debates about the theoretical meaning of this trend.
