NCJ Number
227648
Date Published
2009
Length
224 pages
Annotation
Based on some of the major longitudinal studies of the onset, persistence, desistance, and duration of criminal careers, this book highlights key theoretical and methodological debates on crime and criminal behavior, arguing that it is essential to study criminal behavior across the life course rather than from the perspective of single criminal incidents.
Abstract
Concern about improving the qualitative understanding of the lives of offenders and an emphasis on the power of recent statistical evidence on criminal careers are prevalent throughout the book. One of the perspectives featured in the book is that the notion of the criminal career of an individual offender has in some ways narrowed the focus of criminology. It has tended to limit the study of criminal careers to psychological approaches that feature individual offenders. The authors argue that the individual is only part of the story. The individual is cultivated and embedded in a society that may have relevance in understanding the type of crime that is committed. Although the psychological approach is necessary for understanding criminal careers, it cannot account for the crucial social factors that provide the stimuli for shaping and motivating criminal behavior over time. Another theme of the book is that conceptions of criminal careers should be dynamic, not static, in that lifestyles may not be the same in each generation. Forms of crime change, such that the same types of individuals are not necessarily drawn into new forms of crime. Computer crime, for example, requires skills and knowledge that are not characteristic of criminals of a previous generation. In addition, the authors argue that there should be more focus on serious criminal activity, but with attention to whether comparatively trivial antisocial or criminal behavior necessarily leads to more serious offenses. Approximately 240 references and a subject index