NCJ Number
236160
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 39 Issue: 4 Dated: July/August 2011 Pages: 289-301
Date Published
July 2011
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This article presents a review of research conducted from 2000 to 2011 examining criminal careers.
Abstract
This review found that the research from 2000 through 2011 on criminal careers focused on the following areas: the criminal career paradigm, singular parameters of the criminal career, the contextual factors affecting the criminal career, offense specialization and/or versatility, research on desistance, and the assorted costs posed by the most severe offenders. The review also identified three theoretical perspectives that provide a conceptual framework for understanding criminal careers: self-control theory, psychopathy, and biosocial criminology. This report discusses the research dealing with these perspectives. Finally, the review found 16 areas where research is significantly lacking: the role and importance of co-offenders; the role of sex and race/ethnicity; the utility of qualitative categories of offenders; the adult-onset offender; the number of classes or trajectories of criminal careers that exist; research evaluating the effectiveness of incapacitation on criminal careers; research on delinquency abstainers; an examination of the degree that career criminals and life-course-persistent offenders are the same; does extant theory provide a coherent theoretical framework for criminal careers; research on the role of genes and susceptibility genes associated with behavioral disorders; research examining the situational context of offending; research on how life events alter the progression of criminal careers; a need to consider the full range of methodologies when studying criminal careers; research on developmental psychopathology; research on correctly predicting which youthful offenders will become adult offenders; and research identifying early-life risk factors. References