Criminal Careers Research Articles

The Dynamics of Internet Sexual Solicitation: Examining the Criminal Careers of Online Groomers

ABSTRACT The criminal career approach has been widely employed in the context of sexual delinquency, contributing significantly to our understanding of the criminal activities of sex offenders. To date, no studies have examined the criminal trajectories of online groomers within the framework of a criminal career analysis. To address this gap, the primary objective of this paper is to analyze this group’s criminal trajectories to expand our knowledge on participation, frequency, duration, seriousness, and versatility. To achieve this, an LPA was thus conducted using a sample of 1201 online groomers. The results support the existence of multiple distinct trajectories followed by individuals who engage in online sexual solicitation of minors, revealing the presence of four distinctive profiles: one-timer groomers, versatile and late groomers, specialist sex offender groomers, and polymorphous and prolific groomers. The profiles differ based on the number and types of offenses committed, the duration of their criminal involvement, and the diversity of their criminal activities.

The Effect of Personality Traits on Criminal Behaviour

The extensive investigation into criminal careers, coupled with the growing consensus around the Five-Factor Model of personality traits, has reaffirmed the significance of personality assessments as reliable indicators of criminal behaviour. Several research studies on specialised groups have determined that agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion are associated with criminal behaviour. This study examines the relationship between the probability of committing a crime and various personality qualities, including Agreeableness, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Openness, Neuroticism, and demographic variables associated with crime criminologists. The data was obtained by surveying 916 ordinary people and detainees in Vietnam. For the detainees, participants must be older than 18 years old, have been convicted of the crime of aggravated murder, and have followed at least five years of education. While ordinary people also must be older than 18 years old and do not have a history of crime records. The findings show that there is a different correlation between each personality trait and the probability of committing a crime. Besides, demographic factors also play a relatively insignificant impact in predicting criminal behaviour.

When and where we are: Comparing early criminal careers of organized crime offenders in Italy and the Netherlands across decades

PurposeThis study examines the early criminal careers of organized crime offenders in Italy and the Netherlands and assess how these behaviors have evolved across generations. We (1) compare the early careers with the entire career in the two country samples and (2) assess the influence of generational shifts and social changes on these behaviors, particularly focusing on crime control policies. MethodsAnalyzing data on male offenders born between 1950 and 1986, we analyze criminal careers up to ages 23 and 30. Our analysis includes statistical assessments of differences between countries and among decades, employing multinomial logistic regressions to explore the associations between criminal career parameters and crime categories and the offenders' decade of birth. ResultsSignificant differences were found between the Italian and Dutch samples, reflecting country-specific dynamics in organized crime involvement. Evidence suggests minimal generational shifts towards more serious offending, but notable impacts of social changes, especially in anti-drug and anti-organized crime policies, across individuals born in different decades. ConclusionsBoth the societal context (‘where we are’) and temporal influences (‘when we are’) are essential in understanding criminal careers. Changes in policies and social conditions differentially affected organized crime offenders in Italy and the Netherlands.

Exploring the Criminal Life Course of Uncontrollably Violent Detained Persons

This empirical study was the first to explore the criminal life course of people imprisoned in a Dutch facility for uncontrollably violent persons as a consequence of prison violence ( N = 383). Their characteristics were compared with those from studies of Dutch incarcerated people and those of persons residing in an in-prison psychiatric facility ( N = 1,913). Results showed that uncontrollably violent detained persons are an extreme group: their criminal life course is characterized by an early onset, an extensive and severe criminal career, and high scores on most violence-related historical risk factors. The severity and early onset of their criminal life course, their problematic behavior, and their problems in other life domains became even more apparent following our comparisons. This study underlines the relevance of detained persons’ pre-prison characteristics in addressing prison violence risk factors, and shows that early detection and monitoring is essential to prevent (more) damage.

Abyssus Abyssum Invocat: Victim/Criminal Dynamics in the Construction of Successful Criminal Identities

ABSTRACT This study explores the interplay between victim and perpetrator identities in the construction of successful criminal personas. Through detailed interviews with individuals who transitioned from victims to perpetrators within criminal contexts, the research identifies three critical themes: “Influence, Charisma, and Respect,” “Adaptive Leadership and Strategic Management,” and “Morality and Power-Driven Relativism.” The findings reveal that victim identity significantly contributes to the development of traits essential for criminal success, such as resilience and empathy, which enhance leadership and authority. Furthermore, the strategic manipulation of these identities allows criminals to navigate complex social dynamics and maintain control. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding the duality of victim and perpetrator identities in the broader discourse on criminal self-conception, highlighting the nuanced psychological and relational aspects that underpin successful criminal careers. This research extends existing theories on criminal success by incorporating the dynamics of victim identity, offering a more comprehensive framework for analyzing criminal behavior and identity formation.

A Tale of the 1990s: A Case Study of Nimród Antal’s The Whiskey Bandit as an Allegory of Post-Socialist Nostalgia

The story of Attila Ambrus, also known as the Whiskey Bandit or the Whiskey Robber, is one of the most memorable and widely remembered phenomena from 1990s Hungary. Between 1993 and 1999 Ambrus committed thirty robberies in post offices, banks, travel agencies and other financial institutions. What makes his persona stand out is that despite being a criminal, he not only became a celebrity with widespread media presence, but also a divisive hero: he enjoyed massive popularity as he outmaneuvered police repeatedly. This article reads The Whiskey Bandit (dir. Nimród Antal, 2017), a cinematic adaptation of his criminal career, as an allegory of a specific post-socialist nostalgia in Hungary, a longing for the brief period after the regime change when social, cultural, economic and political transformations re-structured the country’s landscape in an abrupt and even confusing manner, yet offered a moment of hope for endless possibilities and joining the progress of Western modernity. The analysis contextualizes the film’s non-­linear temporal and cacophonic spatial structures as an allegory of 1990s Hungarian experience; furthermore, examines nostalgic overtones in the film as a contemporary reflexive perspective on the euphoric moment of the regime change and following disillusionment of post-regime-change Hungary.

Exploring criminal specialisation in co-offending groups

ABSTRACT Researchers have studied criminal specialisation at the offenders’ level to understand criminal careers. Despite criminal careers comprising events in which offenders co-offend with others, we know less about the extent of co-offending groups showing signs of becoming specialists. To start addressing this gap, in this study we report a method through which we identified 1,796 co-offending groups in a network containing information about adult offenders (n = 76,697) connected to criminal investigations (m = 35,604) between 2010 and 2018. During this timeframe, one in five co-offending groups remained unchanged in their composition and re-offended. Of those re-offending, 54% became specialists in crimes such as those affecting private property. The other 46% that re-offended were generalists. Simulation analyses showed that the proportion of highly specialised groups was not observed by chance. These results suggest that criminal specialisation is a characteristic also shared by co-offending groups. Criminologists and practitioners might find helpful the method employed here to identify co-offending groups and assess their level of specialisation.

One Size Doesn’t Fit All: An Exploratory Typological Approach to Understanding Criminal Career Heterogeneity in Intimate Partner Homicide

Approximately one in seven homicides globally is committed by a partner within an intimate relationship. While criminology research on intimate partner homicide (IPH) perpetrators is extensive, their interactions with law enforcement remain underexplored. This study examines the criminal trajectories of IPH perpetrators to ascertain whether they exhibit common or diverse patterns. Utilizing data from Quebec’s official criminal events database, the study analyzes variables concerning the criminal histories of 1,780 individuals involved in attempted or completed IPH through latent profile analysis. Findings indicate five distinct profiles among IPH perpetrators: one-time, low-volume intimate partner violence (IPV), moderate-volume IPV, high-volume violence, and high-volume polymorphous perpetrators. The external validity of these profiles is assessed using additional criminal career, contextual, and situational variables. Implications for the justice system’s practices and challenges are also discussed.

Criminal Careers and Drug Abuse Among Adolescents in Indonesia

The engagement of adolescents in drug abuse cases is a complex process that requires explanation and reflection. This study aims to explain the criminal careers of adolescents engaged in drug abuse. Such inclinations are often overlooked in studies concerning adolescent involvement in drug abuse cases in Indonesia. In addition to addressing the inadequacies of prior research, this study aims to expound the criminal careers of adolescents involved in drug abuse cases in Indonesia. This is a descriptive qualitative study that utilizes primary and secondary data. The study's findings highlight three important situations of adolescents' criminal careers in drug abuse cases. Firstly, the initial phase of adolescent drug abuse is precipitated by experimentation, peer influence, and a curiosity about drugs. Secondly, active drug abuse among adolescents manifests in various forms such as users, abusers, and addicts. Lastly, active participation in drug abuse among adolescents leads to a progression in behavior from from users to dealers, users to sellers, and addicts to dealers. This study also emphasizes the need to explain the perceptions and motivations of adolescents who engage in drug abuse cases to acquire a better understanding of their conduct.

Criminal Careers and Drug Abuse Among Adolescents in Indonesia

Criminal Careers and Drug Abuse Among Adolescents in Indonesia

Book Review: Character, Circumstances, and Criminal Careers. Towards a Dynamic Developmental and Life-Course Criminology by Per-Olof H. Wikström, Kyle Treiber, and Gabriela D. Roman

Book Review: Character, Circumstances, and Criminal Careers. Towards a Dynamic Developmental and Life-Course Criminology by Per-Olof H. Wikström, Kyle Treiber, and Gabriela D. Roman

Exploring reconvictions and ‘crime-free’ gaps over time: What were the experience of one cohort of English probationers?

Many, but not all, reconviction studies are undertaken over relatively short periods of time (such as 2 or 5 years) and are usually used to gauge the impact of various disposals against one another. This study, based on one cohort of probationers who started being supervised in England during 1997–1998, takes a different tack, and explores their reconvictions between 1997 and 2022, a period of 25 years, and touches upon a range of topics germane to this field, such as: how many reconvictions were racked up?, who was reconvicted?, which offences were they convicted of? and what accounts for their reconvictions? The second half of the article focuses on the issue of ‘crime-free gaps’ and provides further insight into this recent development in criminal careers research and in so doing builds upon an earlier article by Joanna Shapland.

Earlier or Later? A Survival Analysis of Criminal Career and Contextual Factors Associated With Intimate Partner Homicide in Canada

Abstract Intimate partner homicide (IPH) can be viewed as the ultimate result of a potential spectrum of violence that can occur between intimate or former partners. The goal of this study is to identify the criminal career and contextual indicators that precede IPH. This study utilized a database encompassing all criminal events documented by the police in the province of Quebec from 1990 to 2022. Cox regression models indicate that the violent assault in a non-IPV context, variety of criminal offenses and general lambda of crimes influence the likelihood of IPH offender criminal career survival. The results indicate a linear distribution of risk, highlighting the complexity of predicting IPH. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Comparing the criminal careers of organized crime offenders in Italy and the Netherlands

The concept of organized crime has dynamically evolved, with researchers contending that it is a social construct or an umbrella concept encompassing different empirical manifestations. Scholars have often suggested classifying organized crime groups into those involved in “racketeering” or “governing” and those engaged in “transit crime” or “trading.” However, these propositions were never assessed at the level of individual criminal careers. We address two primary objectives: first, we test differences in the criminal careers of organized crime offenders between organized crime contexts that are historically different—comparing Italy, which is primarily known for racketeering organized crime, to the Netherlands, which is characterized more by transit crime. Second, we explore differences between criminal careers of organized crime offenders born in different decades; doing so allows us to measure differences in offending patterns in shifting organized crime contexts due to broader social changes while considering more country-specific changes in law enforcement and organized crime policies. The study relies on the criminal careers of 4480 organized crime offenders in Italy ( n = 3360) and the Netherlands ( n = 1120). We analyze the distributions of criminal career parameters, crime categories, age-crime curves, and offending trajectories. Offenders in Italy exhibit higher offending, earlier violence, earlier onset, and decline; offenders in the Netherlands display later onset, slower decline, and a greater involvement in drug and property offenses. Also, both samples show generalist offending patterns, long-lasting careers, and involvement in organized crime in adulthood. We also find substantial variation across decades of birth, with younger offenders in both countries reporting higher frequencies. We attribute this to the interplay of increased offending among younger individuals, the implicit selection bias in the sampling, and greater law enforcement pressure due to stricter anti-organized crime policies since the 1980s and 1990s.

Co-offending and the Persistence of Violence: A Dynamic Analysis

ObjectivesPrevious research underscores the influence of prior violent co-offending on subsequent violent behavior, linking it to a social contagion mechanism akin to the internalization of violence. However, these studies are limited by disregarding the entirety of a criminal career and overlooking diverse co-offending dynamics beyond co-offenders’ characteristics. This study examines the longitudinal impact of prior violent (solo and co-) offending on future individual-level violent behavior among Italian organized crime offenders.MethodsLeveraging criminal career data from 9819 Italian organized crime offenders, we model offending choices through a discrete-time Markov process. Subsequently, employing dynamic random-effects probit models, we quantify the influence of prior violent (solo and co-) offending on future violence, considering various confounders and unobserved individual-level effects.ResultsViolence is a persistent and long-lasting behavior among organized crime offenders. Prior violent co-offending has a greater impact than prior violent solo offending on the probability of future violence. Prior violent co-offending increases the probability of future violent co-offending but does not impact the probability of future violent solo offending.ConclusionsThe results show that co-offending promotes the transmission of violence but fail to support the internalization of violent behavior postulated by prior studies. We propose possible alternative mechanisms of violence transmission that operate through self-sustaining dynamics of violent co-offending within criminal groups. Although limited data on individual characteristics constrains interpretation, our results imply that violence transmission dynamics are independent from the individual characteristics of the co-offenders and more directly connected to group effects.

Criminal Careers of Domestic Sex Traffickers in the Netherlands: Distinguishing Different Offending Trajectories

Criminal Careers of Domestic Sex Traffickers in the Netherlands: Distinguishing Different Offending Trajectories

Вопросы психолого-педагогического сопровождения профессионального самоопределения несовершеннолетних с отклоняющимся поведением в трудах отечественных психологов

<p style="text-align: justify;">The problem of professional self-determination of the personality of adolescents with deviant, including illegal behavior, is of interest to psychologists and educators, since it is the choice of profession and successful consolidation in professional activity that is an alternative to the criminal career of adolescents experiencing difficulties of socialization. The task of psychological and pedagogical support at this age is to consolidate a teenager’s interest in professional choice, to help comprehend the meaning of work in a life context. Psychological and pedagogical work with this category has its own characteristics. The article provides an analytical review of the theoretical foundations of psychological and pedagogical support of professional self-determination of adolescents prone to deviant, including illegal behavior.</p>

Violent Partners or a Specific Class of Offenders? A Criminal Career Approach to Understanding Men Involved in Intimate Partner Sexual Violence.

The current study investigates the criminal career of individuals involved in intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV). Specifically, the goal is to determine whether men who engage in IPSV can be distinguished from those who engage in intimate partner non sexual violence (IPNSV) only and whether criminal trajectories in the resulting subgroup are heterogeneous. The sample comes from a Canadian database including a total of 12,458 individuals involved in IPSV and 32,474 individuals involved in IPNSV). Bivariate and multivariate analyses are performed to examine the differences in the two groups while latent profile analysis allows examining the heterogeneity of characteristics of men who engaged in IPSV. Findings indicate that the criminal career of men who engage in IPSV follows a pattern that is clearly distinct from that of men who engage in IPNSV only and is more specialized in terms of sexual offenses. Results also show that the criminal trajectories followed by the men who engage in IPSV are heterogeneous. Four profiles of different trajectories were identified. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Predicting new hackers’ criminal careers: A group-based trajectory approach

The current study employs group-based trajectory modeling to assess the longitudinal attack patterns of new hackers involved in website defacement. Specifically, we track the activity of 241 emergent hackers for one year following their first verified website defacement. In doing so, we find four distinct criminal trajectories: low threat (29.0%), naturally desisting (26.5%), increasingly prolific (22.3%), and persistent threat (22.1%). Hackers classified as low threats engage in few defacements, whereas persistent threats engage in high-frequency attacks. Those labeled as naturally desisting begin their careers with velocity but become less prolific with time. Conversely, those classified as increasingly prolific engage in more attacks as they advance in their criminal careers. Using a series of regression models, we find that digital artifacts and open-source intelligence are predictive of group involvement. The findings presented in this study contribute to our theoretical understanding of the developmental trajectories of hackers, while providing valuable insights in fostering targeted intervention strategies aimed at effectively mitigating and preventing cyber-attacks.

Gender-specific trajectories of offending from adolescence until age 40 among individuals with experience of out-of-home care: A national cohort study

It is well-known that experiences of out-of-home care (OHC; foster-family care and residential care) are linked to criminal behavior. Less is known how criminal activity in the OHC population develops over the life course and to what extent such development is characterized by desistance or persistence. Using population-based longitudinal register data for more than 740,000 Swedish men and women, of which around 2.5% have experience of OHC, followed until age 40, results from group-based trajectory modelling and multinomial regression suggest that OHC-experienced individuals with various timing and duration of placement, especially men first placed as teenagers, have substantially elevated likelihood for persistent offending compared to peers without OHC experience. However, most OHC-experienced followed pathways characterized by desistance. Our findings have implications for understanding the dynamics of offending in OHC populations and underscores the necessity for interventions that can prevent the onset of criminal careers, as well as disrupt or modify the ongoing paths of offending within this disadvantaged group of individuals.