Career Criminology

The theory of the career criminal is one that has taken much debate and skepticism throughout the years. The idea that certain type of people are "career criminals" and others are not seems to go over the head of some criminologists. This point is a valid one but what deems someone a career criminal and what type of policies should be set into place once that is decided to deter career criminals from committing crimes? A career criminal is a repeat offender. Often times a career criminal will repeatedly commit a crime, most the time of the same nature, until a certain point in their life when they are either in a better state financially or emotionally or they are incapacitated in the criminal justice system. They are criminals because of the labeling theory which is where society deems that action that the offender took part in as a crime. In other cultures selling mass amounts of marijuana is not considered a crime but in this country it is due to the societal opinion on marijuana and it's use. One major point of the labeling theory is that we see ourselves through others. (Text) This might explain that even though the offender might think the act is morally alright or just the act is a crime. Thus, the offender sees himself as a criminal and commits the crime repeatedly in lue of that fact. The question left to answer is how criminologist react to the offenses to deter them from taking place. One idea with career criminals is to determine the length of their career and incarcerate them accordingly during the height of the career to keep the offenses from taking place. This in itself offers many questions. When considering career criminals, one must take into account prevalence, frequency, specialization, and desistance.(article) This has been looked at heavily in the past and was researched in the early 90's due to a get touch on crime stance that America was portraying to deal with the rising crime rate. This led to many different theories and policies like the "three strikes and you're out," policy that has been used in California. With this policy of an offender commits three serious felonies then they are sentenced to 25 to life in prison. This policy is intended to deter the offenders from repeatedly committing the acts with the threat of life's imprisonment. The policy sounds great but one thing that needs to be determined is a better sentence length. There is an interesting article in the July 2003 issue of Criminal Deviance. In the article, "Studying Criminal Career Length Through Early Adulthood Among Serious Offenders," Alex Piquero, Robert Brame and Donald Lynam sample serious offenders paroled from the California Youth Authority. They explore different high risk factors for career length and also length differences between races.

There have only been a few studies that have tried to determine length duration. Three studies were performed during the 1970's and brought results of career length to five to 15 years. Blumstein performed another study in 1982 and found that most career lengths are about five years long. He also determined that depending on the types of crime usually committed by a criminal could have an affect on their average duration and also the time of onset such as, and 18 year old who starts criminal acts will do so longer than a 23 year old who starts. There have been other studies but most point that the average length of duration is between eight to ten years.

Policies like the afore mentioned three strikes policy assume that if an offender is not incapacitated they will continue to offend at higher rates for longer periods of time. Due to the research given, it is easy to see this is not true. This policy is unlikely to have a huge impact on the reduction of crime. Many of those sentenced are already at the end of their careers. This is actually wasting money. Offenders need to be incarcerated during the height of their criminal careers to reduce the number of crimes they can commit and not let the money being used to rehabilitate them go to waste. If they are incapacitated at the end of their careers then it is wasting the funds used to keep them in prison and there is no financial gain achieved from their reduction in crime because they would be done with their offenses.

In the study of the California Youth Authority parolees, the researchers used a sample of 377 males who were released at the age of 18 and followed for an average of 150 months. The dependent variable was determined to be career length meaning the time between the first and the most recent event to date. (Article) The independent variables were : when the parolee has his first contact with the police, whether the parolee was violent in the 2 years prior to his CYA commitment, and the length of stay in prison/jail. (Article) The researchers even set up control variables to cover all the bases. They examined the age of release from prison, they measured the months of follow-up, checked for history of crime in the offenders' families, and also controlled the race of the offender. (Article)

Probably one of the most accurate ways of determining the chance of criminal acts and the rate and length at which those occur is by checking for history of crime in the offenders family. Biological theories suggest that there might be a gene or an inheritance that could be passed down from parents to their children and could pinpoint who will become a deviant when others will not. The biological theories are part of a greater positivistic approach. Positivism is the concept that the scientific method could be used to explain all human behavior, and assumes that these behaviors are the function of forces beyond ones control. (Text) Gregor Mendel researched biological traits and discovered that traits are genetic and can be inherited. Lombroso's research concluded that there were many characteristics of a physical nature that can signify that of a criminal from a non criminal. He concluded that certain physical types , specifically those that of an earlier version of man, were more prone to criminal activities than humans with a more evolved look.(web.mala.bc) There has been numerous researchers since that have conclude like biology definitely plays a part in the criminal justice system. Children with parents who have a criminal past are more likely than those without to develop a criminal record even if they are placed in a home with adopted parents who have no record. The biological theories have since taken a backseat to other theories about how criminals are born. This is mainly because of many criminologists having a hard time accepting that crime is solely genetic and involves no free will.

The opposite end of the nature vs. nurture debate is whether crime is actually learned. On the nurture side there are the social process theories meaning that through a series of social process or actions and thoughts crime is taught. The social learning theory explains this by a number of reasons. First is how the offender define crime through social interactions. Then the offender applies those definitions to their own attitude. Third, the anticipate the consequences involved with the action. Lastly, the offender imitates actions taken by their role model. (Text) This is probably the hardest theory to prove wrong in relation to career criminals. The sample was taken from the California Youth Authority. Assuming that many of the study patients that were researched had friends that influenced them to commit the various actions that they committed, then the theory would be correct. The only argument then is whether the offender committed the crime before or after they became friends with other deviants. With integrated theories for criminal deviance being used today, it is probably easier to believe that it would be a mixture of both the nature and the nurture aspect.

The results of the career criminal research concludes that mean length of careers is 17.3 years which is quite a bit longer than what most of the researchers in the 70's and 80's had determined. The results were conclusion that the age of first contact with the police, length of prison stay, age released, and factors with their family all had an impact on the career length of a criminal. There were six reasons that the researchers listed that may need to be improved upon to get a more accurate account of career criminals. The most complete answer to be found to answer why the results are as such is due to strain theories. Strain theories are sociological in nature and deal with stress, frustration, and strain that the offenders goes through. These theories account that social norms are offended to alleviate or reduce the strain that comes with failure. (Text) This explains why a "career criminal" is not a criminal their entire life. This also explains why there is such a huge difference in the length of repeated offense between one career criminal and another. At a certain point the criminal might find themself in a better place financially or emotionally and does not feel the need to commit such acts anymore. This will not come at a certain age for all criminals, just whenever fate, hard work, and support from friends and family works in their favor and they become rehabilitated and are able to deal with the pressures of life or the pressures they already have are alleviated. Emile Durkheim represented this in a different light. He used suicide as his research sample. Suicide could be compared to crime because it is both seen as an easy way out. Instead of working hard originally to get to a better place or to alleviate emotional stress some other way many choose suicide or crime as a way of getting rid of the stresses of everyday life. (Text) But still why do some do it when others do not? Durkheim came up with a few determinants that affect who commits suicide and who does not and those determinants are relevant to crime. They are religion, marital status, and economic conditions. (Text)

There are many contributing factors to career criminals and the length of their duration. Biological, labeling, and human learning theories explain various reasons for what crime is, why it's committed and what type of people are subject to being called criminals but the strain theories give a more solid approach to why there are career criminals and why the length of their careers differ. An integrated theory comprising all four types of theories might be able to answer every question that arises in regards to career criminals but without better technology to determine the exact length of someone's career it is going to be nearly impossible to sentence career criminals accordingly. This needs to change in order to incapacitated for the right amount of time, rehabilitate those who are willing to make and change, and save money that is being wasted on crime expenses and also incarceration.

Citations:

1. Brown, Esbensen, Geis. "Criminology: Explaining Crime and It's Context." Anderson Publishing, 2004. Cincinnati, Ohio.

2. Bakker, Erin. "Nature Vs. Nurture: A Criminological Perspective." November 16^th, 2004