5. Findings on the number and shape of criminal trajectories

Abstract

This chapter presents findings from select studies from the criminal trajectory literature to highlight the heterogeneity among offender populations and subpopulations, specifically female offenders and sex offenders. The chapter contributes a state-of-the-art overview of what is known about criminal trajectories and what this work tells us about the nature and pattern of offending over time within and across individuals. It describes and synthesizes the results of research in terms of the number of trajectory groups derived, their shape, peak, length, size, and crime mix and offers insights into the reasons for the variability across studies along these dimensions. In order to present the broad range of topics to which trajectory research has been applied in the criminal justice field, results are also presented on four novel areas: (a) patterns of risk assessment scores over time scores, (b) code-of-the-street beliefs, (c) cross-national terrorism, and (d) monetary costs of crime across trajectory groups.