[Moffitt's developmental taxonomy as seen by new results--some remarks on the "adolescence-limited" delinquency].

In her taxonomy Moffitt describes two developmental pathways into delinquent behaviour: an episodic, "adolescence-limited" occurrence of delinquent behavior and a pathway characterised by an early onset and a stable course of delinquent behavior ("life-course-persistent"). Referring to the results of recent longitudinal studies the present paper inspects the empirical validity of the theory. The reported studies support both pathways postulated by Moffitt and emphasise the relevance of the onset of delinquent behaviour in the developmental course (childhood-onset vs. adolescence-onset). However, contrary to Moffitts model, the results also pointed out, that "adolescence-onset" can not be put on one level with "adolescence-limited". The results let us rather assume that there exists another pathway beside the two postulated by Moffitt, in which delinquent behaviour starts in adolescence (without an antisocial history in childhood) and continues into adulthood. Based on these results a broadening of perspective is pled for, in which the adolescence is also expected as a "sensible period" to the beginning of a delinquent development. The questions arising from this are outlined for future research.