Topic > Criminal Careers: How They Are Produced

Although so much research has been conducted on crime, it is still an important public policy issue and one of the most elusive topics of scientific research. Many scholars have addressed the topic, theorized about its etiology, and formed valid opinions about the best policies to address crime. However, despite the research and efforts put into the topic, there is no definitive or comprehensive method or policy developed to effectively combat crime. Nonetheless, some significant progress has been made in the study of criminal careers, and much effort has been made to realize and understand the “criminal career” paradigm. While there are various claims about how criminal careers are produced, a deeper insight into the components of the criminal and crime career paradigm, causes, and patterns reveals that criminal careers are produced by an imbalance between the individual and society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Generally, criminal careers are considered to be the “longitudinal sequence of delinquent and criminal acts committed over the course of one’s life, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood.” " (Barry, Monica and Fergus, 43 years old). Most offenders tend to commit a single crime and end their delinquency after arrest. However, a small percentage commit crimes continuously and repeatedly, with a subgroup of these individuals developing into chronic delinquents; forming a “career” pattern of criminal behavior (Blumstein, Alfred, 12). The first study of criminal careers, Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency, by Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck, found that there was a strong relationship between age and crime. Glueks found that, Surname2over time, there is a stable and identifiable change in behavior and crime committed (Blumstein, Alfred, 13). its implication of both continuity and change became dominant. Therefore, a more dynamic view of crime was advocated, which included the element of stability and change within criminal careers. That is, criminal careers demonstrated continuity and change throughout development. Furthermore, in the study of the production of criminal careers, there are four structural elements that are defined and applied; these are participation/prevalence, frequency/incidence, severity, and career length (Levesque, Roger, 544). In this case, participation is considered a macro-level measure of the percentage of the population involved in delinquent behavior, while frequency refers to the rate at which the offender actively offends (Levesque, Roger, 544). Next, severity refers to the significance of the crime committed by a given individual, while career length refers to the length of time the individual has actively committed a crime. Furthermore, the age at which the individual commits their crime varies, with those who display antisocial behavior producing earlier and longer criminal careers than others (Levesque, Roger, 544). Those who show an early start to their criminal career tend to be involved in more serious crimes later. Therefore, starting age is related to career length and duration. When these elements are aggregated across individuals within a given population, they show a criminal career that follows a unimodal age-crime curve. Although these arguments on the production and development ofcriminal careers are valid, evidence shows that the criminal careers of most offenders are quite short; consisting of one or a few crimes in their adolescence and stopping these acts altogether. However, for a select portion of individuals – approximately 5 to 10% of a given sample of offenders – the criminal career is long; they commit more serious and frequent crimes (DeLisi, Matt, 35). Furthermore, the most prolific offenders tend to begin committing crime at a much later age, giving them a longer criminal career than one that begins at a later age (Levesque, Roger, 544-545). Furthermore, these delinquents continue to commit more violent crimes than their delinquent youth. Furthermore, co-offenders who begin their criminal careers very early become more prolific and more violent as they progress in their criminal careers (Levesque, Roger, 543). As Moffitt shows, offending “shows compelling continuity across age,” but “its prevalence changes dramatically with age” (674). Therefore, to understand the criminal's life or predict future criminal activity, the investigator studies past criminal behavior, keeping in mind that the prevalence of crime will decrease dramatically with age. Therefore, the production of criminal careers depends on an individual's social ties and ties to institutions. Sampson and his colleagues hypothesized that shifting social ties to offenders and institutions (such as family) over the course of one's life can lead an individual to continue or cease their criminal behavior (Sampson, Robert, & John Laub, 168) . The authors demonstrated, in their age-based theory of informal social control, that there is an element of stability and change in behavioral trajectories – such as criminality over time. They observed that some life events such as marriage can increase the individual's connection with society or society. institution, most often leading to a decrease in the individual's association with other delinquent peers (Sampson, Robert, & John Laub, 168). As the association decreases, the individual's crime rates decrease. However, the failure to form such bonds causes the individual to continue offending throughout his or her life. Comparing shorter and longer criminal careers, Thornberry, Terence, and Marvin explain that those without social ties to Surname4 produce a more violent and persistent criminal career than those who have social ties to nonviolent institutions (187). Some scholars also argue that a typical criminal career does not exist; this means that it is not possible to determine the determinants for the development of criminal careers. Farrington et al. they found that criminal careers begin between the ages of 19 and 28, and all other gangs favorably, showing that the decrease in social anomalies corresponded to general social interaction. Furthermore, as discussed by Moffit, chronic delinquents are rare while episodic juvenile delinquency is common and significantly frequent (Nagin, Daniel et al. 112). Refuting the development of criminal careers, Freiburg argues that it is produced by an imbalance between the individual and society, and the lack of patterns means that they can occur at any time (Farrington, David, et al, 6). These issues make it difficult to identify future offenders or predict the likelihood of offending within a criminal career, and criminal careers last only the medium term. Furthermore, Farrington, the argument presents that the lack of a predictive path to criminal career demonstrates that there the production or development of criminal career is non-existent, indeed, the only.