Retrospective Reinterpretations of Criminal Careers

Both juvenile and adult criminal careers show regularities in the origins of delinquency, the dynamics of the criminal pathway, and the turning points that lead to desistance/persistence in crime. Research shows that family, education, and friendship environments contribute significantly to the individual choices that create criminal biographies. Our aim was to apply core aspects of life course theory (LCT): trajectory, the aged-graded process, transitions, institutions, and ultimately how desistance/persistence factor into explaining the criminal careers of Polish offenders. The research is based on in-depth interviews (130) carried out with both offenders (90) and experts (40). The offenders were divided into two groups: 30 were juveniles, and 60 were adults of whom half were sentenced for the first time (30) and half were recidivists (30) located in correctional institutions or released. The experts group (40) includes psychologists, educators, social rehabilitators, and prison and juvenile detention personnel working with offenders. We used triangulation of researcher, data, and methodology. Our data revealed that similar biographical experiences characterized by an early socialization, family and friends-based circles laid the groundwork for their entry and continued participation in criminal activity. Juvenile and adult first-time sentenced offenders led criminal careers significantly different from those of recidivists, who faced problems with social adaptation caused by lack of family and institutional support.

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Multiple murder and criminal careers: A latent class analysis of multiple homicide offenders

Forensic Science International ◽

10.1016/j.forsciint.2008.10.014 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 183 (1-3) ◽

pp. 67-73 ◽

Cited By ~ 43

Author(s):

Michael G. Vaughn ◽

Matt DeLisi ◽

Kevin M. Beaver ◽

Matthew O. Howard

Keyword(s):

Latent Class Analysis ◽

Latent Class ◽

Criminal Careers ◽

Class Analysis ◽

Multiple Homicide

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The criminal careers of incident cases of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia Research ◽

10.1016/0920-9964(92)90285-d ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 174

Author(s):

S. Wessely ◽

D. Castle

Keyword(s):

Criminal Careers ◽

Incident Cases

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Federal sex offender registration and notification act (SORNA) offenders: sexual versatility, criminal careers and supervision outcomes

Journal of Criminal Psychology ◽

10.1108/jcp-07-2021-0033 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Alan J. Drury ◽

Matt DeLisi ◽

Michael Elbert

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Sexual Offenders ◽

Sex Offender ◽

Negative Binomial ◽

Crime Control ◽

Sexual Offender ◽

Criminal Careers ◽

Sex Offender Registration ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Content Type

Purpose Sex offender registration and notification act (SORNA) offenders are a source of scholarly study across the social, behavioral, forensic and legal sciences with the bulk of literature focusing on the legal standing and deterrent value of sexual offender registries. Less research focuses on the offending careers of current SORNA offenders relative to other types of sexual offenders whose current offense is not SORNA. The purpose of the current study is to examine this issue empirically. Design/methodology/approach Using cross-sectional data from a census of male federal offenders who ever perpetrated a sexual offense from the central USA between 2016 and 2020, the current study used t-tests, logistic regression and negative binomial regression to compare current SORNA offenders to other federal correctional clients in terms of their lifetime offending history, sexual violence and compliance on federal supervision. Findings Current SORNA offenders are significantly more severe and versatile in their sexual offending, have more extensive criminal careers and criminal justice system involvement, and exhibit significantly increased odds of revocation on supervised release despite controls for age, race and ethnicity. However, sensitivity models that specified the federal Post-Conviction Risk Assessment reduced the effects of SORNA status to non-significance in all models. Originality/value SORNA offenders are potentially a significant offender group with evidence of both and given their versatile and specialized lifetime offending and noncompliance on federal supervision. However, current SORNA status is rendered spurious once a risk assessment is controlled suggesting more research is needed to evaluate whether sex offender registries posit greater crime control benefit.

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The Kosher Capones

10.7591/cornell/9781501747311.001.0001 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Joe Kraus

Keyword(s):

Organized Crime ◽

Political Corruption ◽

Criminal Careers ◽

West Side

This book tells the fascinating story of Chicago’s Jewish gangsters from Prohibition into the 1980s. The book traces these gangsters through the lives, criminal careers, and conflicts of Benjamin “Zukie the Bookie” Zuckerman, last of the independent West Side Jewish bosses, and Lenny Patrick, eventual head of the Syndicate’s “Jewish wing.” These two men linked the early Jewish gangsters of the neighborhoods of Maxwell Street and Lawndale to the notorious Chicago Outfit that emerged from Al Capone’s criminal confederation. Focusing on the murder of Zuckerman by Patrick, the book introduces us to the different models of organized crime they represented, a raft of largely forgotten Jewish gangsters, and the changing nature of Chicago’s political corruption. Hard-to-believe anecdotes of corrupt politicians, seasoned killers, and in-over-their-heads criminal operators spotlight the magnitude and importance of Jewish gangsters to the story of Windy City mob rule. With an eye for the dramatic, the book takes us deep inside a hidden society and offers glimpses of the men who ran the Jewish criminal community in Chicago for more than sixty years.

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