Doing Crime - A Survey of California Prison Inmates - Executive Summary

• NCJ Number: 72477
• Author(s): M A Peterson; H B Braiker; S M Polich
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 14 pages
• Grant Number(s): 77-NI-99-0053
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Corporate Author: Rand Corporation
• Sale Source: Superintendent of Documents, GPO; National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Based on a 1976 self-report survey of 624 incarcerated male felons in 5 California State prisons, this summary provides detailed information about the characteristics and behavior of certain criminal offenders and differences between highly active and less active offenders.

Abstract

The survey examined in detail the realationship between crime rates and three kinds of self-reported information: (1) personal characteristics--age, race, and drug use; (2) experience with the criminal justice system--prior criminal record, current conviction offense, and juvenile criminal history; and (3) social-psychological characteristics--self-concept, motivation for committing crime, attitudes about crime, etc. The survey covered the 3-year period preceding the felons' imprisonment. Findings indicate that (1) the career criminal (most of the survey respondents fit this category) thinks of himself as a professional, (2) he does not specialize in a particular type of crime, (3) his career begins as early as age 12, and (4) because he finds committing crimes to be exciting and rewarding, he intends to return to crime when he gets out of prison. Inmates did not deny committing crimes. Almost 90 percent reported committing at least one crime during the 3 years prior to imprisonment. Most reported committing crimes in addition to the ones for which they were incarcerated. Half of those reporting crimes said they had committed four or more different crimes during the 3 years. The most active offenders (8 percent) will have committed at least 60 crimes each during their last 12 months in society. Findings also show that 25 percent of the offenders are responsible for 58 percent of all the armed robberies, 65 percent of all the auto thefts, and 46 percent of all the assaults reported by the inmates. Moderate success was achieved in the development of a model that predicts who the high-rate property offenders are, but little success was achieved in predicting violent offenders. Footnotes are included. (Author abstract modified)