Successful Criminal Careers: Toward an Ethnography Within the Rational Choice Perspective (From Routine Activity and Rational Choice: Advances in Criminological Theory, Volume 5, P 201-221, 1993, Ronald V. Clarke and Marcus Felson, eds. - See NCJ-159998)

• NCJ Number: 160008
• Author(s): B D Johnson; M Natarajan; H Sanabria
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 21 pages
• Sale Source: Transaction Publishers
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter uses a rational choice perspective to explore how ethnographic methods could provide new insight into how high-rate property offenders continue their successful criminal careers.

Abstract

The emerging emphasis in criminology on how criminals commit crimes provides a new opportunity for ethnographers to contribute to mainstream criminology, and to educate police, judges, and policy makers about how criminals think and operate. Qualitative methodologies are uniquely suited to study how property offenders continue successful criminal careers, strategies offenders use in committing crime, and factors that influence criminals' career choices and actions during specific crime episodes. Specifically, trained ethnographers in most urban areas would be able to locate, recruit, and interview high-rate offenders who successfully avoid arrest for most of their crimes. 2 figures, 1 appendix, and 41 references