Criminal Careers In Transition

This study follows the completion of a fifth sweep of interviews with members of a cohort of former probationers interviewed since the late 1990s. The research has been about developing a long-term evidence base, rather than a rapid assessment which does not have the time fully to explore the issue, namely whether (and how) probation supervision assists desistance from crime. The book explores how probation supervision helped people to stop offending, and investigates new areas (such as victimization, citizenship, emotional trajectories of reform, & the spatial dynamics of desistance).

By focusing attention on individuals rather than on aggregates, this book takes a novel approach to studying criminal behavior. It develops a framework for collecting information about individual criminal careers and their parameters, reviews existing knowledge about criminal career dimensions, presents models of offending patterns, and describes how criminal career information can be used to develop and refine criminal justice policies. In addition, an agenda for future research on criminal careers is presented.

What makes a juvenile delinquent develop into an adult criminal? What defines-cognitively, developmentally, legally-the transition from juvenile to adult and what determines whether patterns of criminal behavior persist? In most US states and Western nations, legal adulthood begins at age 18. This volume focuses on the period surrounding that abrupt transition (roughly ages 15-29) and addresses what happens to offending careers during it. Edited by two leading authorities in the fields of psychology and criminology, Transitions from Juvenile Delinquency to Adult Crime examines why the period of transition is important and how it can be better understood and addressed both inside and outside of the justice system. Bringing together over thirty leading scholars from multiple disciplines in both North America and Europe, this volume asks critical questions about criminal careers and causation, and whether current legal definitions of adulthood accurately reflect actual maturation and development. The volume also addresses the current efficacy of the justice system in addressing juvenile crime and recidivism, why and how juveniles ought to be treated differently from adults, if special legal provisions should be established for young adults, and the effectiveness of crime prevention programs implemented during early childhood and adolescence. With serious scholarly analysis and practical policy proposals, Transitions from Juvenile Delinquency to Adult Crime addresses what can be done to ensure that todays juvenile delinquents do not become tomorrows adult criminals.

Recent years have witnessed an increase in the attention given to the later stages of criminal careers. Research upon this topic has charted the main factors associated with the termination of criminal careers, outlined some of the possible reasons behind these relationships and started to develop theoretical explanations for such relationships. Collected together for the first time are some of the most important contributions to this field of research. The collection focuses upon the initial explorations into this topic, the most commonly observed findings, the cessation of offending by specific offender-types and theoretical matters. An introductory essay by the editor provides a thorough overview of the work in this area and highlights the reasons why the termination of criminal careers will become increasingly important to criminologists and criminal justice policy makers alike.

It takes courage to do research on crime and delinquency. Such research is typically conducted in an atmosphere of concern about the problem it addresses and is typically justified as an attempt to discover new facts or to evaluate innovative programs or policies. When, as must often be the case, no new facts are forthcoming or innovative programs turn out not to work, hopes are dashed and time and money are felt to have been wasted. Because they take more time, longitudinal studies require even greater amounts of courage. If the potential for discovery is enhanced, so is the risk of wasted effort. Long-term longitudinal studies are thought to be especially risky for other reasons as well. Theories, issues, and sta tistical methods in vogue at the time they were planned may not be in vogue when they are finally executed. Perhaps worse, according to some perspectives, the structure of causal factors may shift during the execu tion of a longitudinal project such that in the end its findings apply to a reality that no longer exists. These fears and expectations assume an ever-changing world and a corresponding conception of research as a more or less disciplined search for news. Such ideas belittle the contributions of past research and leave us vulnerable to theories, programs, policies, and research agendas that may have only tenuous connections to research of any kind.

This book contributes to our knowledge of desistance in a developing country. Offering an intercultural dialogue with mainstream explanations, Transitions Out of Crime analyses the transition from crime to conformity among a group of Chilean juvenile offenders. Desistance from crime is not just the cessation of criminal activity itself, but a process of acquiring roles, identities, and virtues; of developing new social ties, and of inhabiting new spaces. This book offers new evidence that shows that the traditional binary between the ‘reformed desister’ and the ‘anti-social persister’ is inaccurate and that the road to desistance contains various oscillations between crime and conformity. Furthermore, this study shows the role that gender plays in shaping, limiting and structuring pathways away from crime. Written in a clear and direct style, this book will appeal to those engaged in criminology, sociology, penology, desistance, rehabilitation, gender studies and all those interested in the transition from crime to conformity outside the Anglo-American orthodoxy.

Criminal Careers follows the lives and criminal behaviours of 2,397 people in Poland who as juveniles committed a crime and received a form of punishment from the juvenile court between the late 1980s and the year 2000. Through combining quantitative and qualitative research, their criminal careers, the differences between men and women, risk factors, and reasons for nondesistance are analysed. Uniquely, the authors have used an extensive database of former juveniles, in which as many as 40% were women. This book therefore makes a comparison between women and men in terms of their future life paths. Additionally, the researched group consisted of teenagers from two different periods: the 1980s (the transition generation) and 2000 (the millennial generation), which in the context of Central and Eastern European countries means that they entered adulthood in completely different realities. These differences are therefore also explored in depth within the book. By focusing on Poland, the book provides a different perspective to criminal career research, which is generally limited to a few countries in Western Europe and the United States. The book will be of great interest to academics and students who are developing their own research in the fields of criminal careers, juvenile delinquency, and antisocial behaviours by young people. It will also appeal to professionals, including juvenile judges, probation officers, staff in correctional facilities and social rehabilitation institutions, social workers and employees of nonprofit organisations that support juveniles, people in crisis, and prisoners or exprisoners.

How can the average 'criminal career' be characterized and how common are career criminals? Does offending become more specialized and/or more serious as people get older? Do female careers in crime differ from those of males in substance or only in magnitude? Britta Kyvsgaard examines these questions through her longitudinal analysis of the life circumstances and criminal pursuits of 45,000 Danish offenders. This 2002 book provides a remarkably broad assessment of the full spectrum of criminal career patterns. The data, unparalleled in size and quality, allows powerful analyses of criminal behavior, even among relatively small demographic subgroups. Kyvsgaard is thus able to make solid assessments of offending patterns for males and females, juveniles and middle-aged adults, and employed and unemployed individuals. Furthermore, she examines the empirical evidence of the effects of deterrence and incapacitation. Her findings suggest rehabilitation as an alternative worthy of further research.