NCJ Number
164890
Editor(s)
D F Greenberg
Date Published
1996
Length
1081 pages
Annotation
Two volumes of essays on criminal careers examine patterns and explanations; the criminal career paradigm; offense-specific studies; and causes, correlates, and contingencies.
Abstract
Essays on patterns and explanations of criminal careers consider crime and age, as well as characteristics of criminal careers. Essays on crime and age include a description of the age distribution of illegal interpersonal violence and property acquisition in modern North America and Europe; a comparison of crime and age in Israel, the United States, and Western Europe; and the relationship between age and individual crime rates in the evolution of criminal careers. Essays on the patterns of criminal careers address such topics as whether criminal careers have a similar trajectory, whether there are different types of careers, whether they have identifiable starts and conclusions, whether there is a typical escalation in crime severity over time, and whether career criminals tend to specialize in particular crime types. The final group of readings in Volume I documents a set of controversies regarding the criminal career paradigm in criminological research. In this context, a paradigm is a conceptual framework built around certain concepts, specifying a research agenda and establishing criteria for assessing the value and validity of empirical research. In Volume II, 16 essays focus on offense-specific studies of criminal careers. The offenses encompass property offenses, male prostitution, drug trafficking and use, female street offenders, arson, and white-collar crime. Ten essays address the causes, correlates, and contingencies of criminal careers. Chapter references and a name index