NCJ Number
137409
Journal
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency Volume: 29 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1992) Pages: 148-161
Date Published
1992
Length
14 pages
Annotation
Criminologists in St. Louis interviewed 105 active burglars, taking 70 of them to the site of a recent burglary and asking them to reconstruct the crime in detail. This study challenged the assumptions of many criminologists who believe that conducting field studies of active offenders is impractical.
Abstract
Subjects of this research were located using a snowball or chain referral sampling strategy. This strategy is initiated by the recruitment of a single subject who then recommends further participants. In this case, the researchers avoided seeking referrals from criminal justice officials, including police and probation officers. Instead, an ex-offender with continuing ties to the underworld was used to locate active criminals. The researchers cultivated a successful working relationship with the subjects by learning their terminology and phrasing, by being honest about the purposes of the research, by maintaining confidentiality, and by negotiating an agreement with local police not to interfere. This sample was 69 percent black and 31 percent white. Twenty one of the subjects were on probation or parole, and 26 percent of the sample were juveniles. Of the 105 subjects, 44 had no arrests for burglary while another 35 had one or more arrests, but no convictions for the offense. Those subjects who had never been arrested, offended more frequently and had committed more lifetime burglaries than their arrested counterparts. 2 tables, 1 figure, and 26 references