Criminal behavior of parents substantially affects the criminal behavior of
children. Little is known, however, about how crime is transmitted from one generation to
the next. In order to test two possible explanations against each other, we pose the question
whether the timing of the criminal acts of fathers is important for children’s chances of
committing crime. Static theories predict that it is the number of delinquent acts performed
by fathers that is important, and that the particular timing does not affect the child’s chance
of committing crime. Dynamic theories state that the timing is important, and children
have a greater chance of committing crime in the period after fathers have committed
delinquent acts. Results show that the total number of convictions of a father is indeed very
important, but also the exact timing is key to understanding intergenerational transmission
of crime. In the year a father is convicted the chance his child is also convicted increases
substantially and it decays in subsequent years. This decay takes longer the more crimes
father has committed. Our results show that some of the assumptions of the static theories
at least need to be adjusted.
