Types Of Criminal Behavior Research Articles

Deterrence, Overload, and Incapacitation: An Empirical Evaluation

This paper explores the effect of certainty of punishment on different types of criminal behavior. It is argued that deterrence theory, which treats the potential criminal as weighing the relative rewards and costs of a criminal act, is more applicable to certain types of crimes than others. The strength of the negative relationship between certainty of punishment and crime rate will thus vary by type of crime. It is argued that deterrence, overload, and incapacitation theories each predict different patterns of these variations in strength. Thus the fit of the expected pattern to available data should allow us to choose among the theories. Using previously unpublished data for SMSAs and results obtained by other researchers, the actual patterns of strength of relationships are studied. Though the data presently available have many problems and some of the patterns are ambiguous, the deterrence predictions seem to have the best overall support. Interest in the deterrent effect of punishment has grown substantially in both sociology and economics in the past few years. Previously the work done by sociologists on deterrence focused on the death penalty, and these analyses indicated that the death penalty did not deter homicide (Savitz; Schuessler), so for a long time it was generally assumed by sociologists that punishment did not deter criminal behavior (Tullock). Recently, however, sociologists have expanded their analyses to include a broad range of offenses and a variety of dimensions of punishment, and they have used more sophisticated research methods. During the past few years, economists, who tend to see human behavior-including deviant behavior-in explicit rational and profit-maximizing terms, have also begun to address the deterrence question explicitly (e.g., Ehrlich; Sjoquist). Contrary to earlier results the bulk of the new evidence points to a deterrence effect (for *We would like to thank David Sjoquist for making some of his data available to us. The comments of Robert Crutchfield, Lisa Heinrich, Mayer Zald, and especially Michael Hughes on an earlier draft are greatly appreciated.

Deterrence, Overload, and Incapacitation: An Empirical Evaluation

This paper explores the effect of certainty of punishment on different types of criminal behavior. It is argued that deterrence theory, which treats the potential criminal as weighing the relative rewards and costs of a criminal act, is more applicable to certain types of crimes than others. The strength of the negative relationship between certainty of punishment and crime rate will thus vary by type of crime. It is argued that deterrence, overload, and incapacitation theories each predict different patterns of these variations in strength. Thus the fit of the expected pattern to available data should allow us to choose among the theories. Using previously unpublished data for SMSAs and results obtained by other researchers, the actual patterns of strength of relationships are studied. Though the data presently available have many problems and some of the patterns are ambiguous, the deterrence predictions seem to have the best overall support.

Crime Causation Theories: Failures and Perspectives

All the general explanations of crime are, due to the heterogeneity of criminal behaviour, failures; among them-Lombroso's, Sutherland's and Freudian theories. Typological approach makes causal analysis feasible, provided that proper criteria of classification are adopted; the two suggested here are: external characteristics of criminal behaviour, and its meaning. Consequently, the proposed causal analysis implies finding out components of sufficient conditions for individual types of criminal behaviour. From the social policy viewpoint, components strategic for crime prevention are to be learned first. The multi-type components each of them essential for various types of criminal behaviour-are the most strategic. The adopted usage of 'cause', and the notion of the multi-type components, make it possible to restate and to specify the differential association, anomie, and Marxist theories of crime, and to reconsider the hypotheses of deterrent and of educative force of legal sanctions. The paper ends with a general questionwhether, and to what extent, comprehensiveness and universality of crime causation theories can possibly be achieved.

Criminal Behavior Systems. A Typology

1. Types of Criminal Behavior 2. Violent Personal Criminal Behavior 3. Occasional Property Criminal Behavior 4. Public Order Criminal Behavior 5. Conventional Criminal Behavior 6. Political Criminal Behavior 7. Occupational Criminal Behavior 8. Corporate Criminal Behavior 9. Organized Criminal Behavior 10. Professional Criminal Behavior

ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC STUDY OF CRIMINALS

Electroencephalographic study of 452 criminals and 1,432 control subjects reveals that when age factors and sampling errors are controlled there are no significant differences between the two groups. Since the EEG is a fairly reliable indicator of epilepsy and organic brain disease, it seems reasonable to conclude that subclinical forms of these disorders are not contributing factors in a significant faction of the "sane" criminal population. No significant correlation could be found between the EEG and the type of criminal behavior.