This refers to the observation that the tendency to commit violent crime increases during early adolescence and peaks at late adolescence before it drops and flattens in the 20s and 30s. It is claimed that the age-crime curve applies to people across various cultures and can be explained by various evolutionary factors. This empirical phenomenon was first noted by American criminologists Travis Hirschi and Michael Gottfredson in their influential 1983 paper “Age and the Explanation of Crime”. Some have even argued that age and intelligence are also related in a similar manner, with the intelligence of people peaking in their late 20s.
