NCJ Number
102772
Editor(s)
A Blumstein,
J Cohen,
J A Roth,
C A Visher
Date Published
1986
Length
415 pages
Annotation
This volume takes an indepth look at various aspects of criminal careers, including the relationship of alcohol and drug abuse to criminal careers, issues in the measurement of criminal careers, accuracy of prediction models, and ethical issues in the use of criminal career information in making decisions about offenders.
Abstract
The measurement of individual criminal careers is examined in terms of alternative measurement techniques available, sources of distortion and their effects on estimates, and research strategies to reduce discrepancies among different measures of individual offending patterns. Literature reviews examine (1) the influence of alcohol and drugs on criminal careers and (2) group patterns in offending over the life cycle. A reanalysis of the data from the Rand Second Inmate Survey confirms the existence of wide variations in individual offending patterns and recommends changes in a prediction instrument designed to identify high-rate offenders. Additional papers address methodological and measurement issues, examine the ethical issues involved in using predictions of future criminal behavior, and introduce new models of criminal careers developed from recent advances in economics and stochastic processes. Figures, data tables, chapter reference lists. The research was conducted by the National Research Council's Panel on Research on Criminal Careers under the sponsorship of the National Institute of Justice. For individual papers, see NCJ 102773-102779.