Criminal Careers and Public Policy Responses Research Paper

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The past three decades of research and theorizing in Criminology has provided an opportunity to learn and further understand the dimensions of criminal careers as well as offending behavior across the life course. First articulated by Alfred Blumstein and colleagues in 1986, the criminal career approach to understanding patterns of offending behavior has provided a wealth of information that has fostered greater understanding of criminal behavior, greater knowledge to foster theoretical development, and realignment as well as important implications for the development of age-graded policy responses to crime and criminal behavior.

While the strongest emphasis of the criminal career approach has been on generating a wealth of information about criminal careers, including factors related to their initiation, factors related to components of active offending activity, as well as factors related to career desistance or termination, the approach has important implications for informing policies and programs aimed at controlling or preventing crime and criminal behavior.

This research paper provides an opportunity to describe the criminal career approach as well as chart how the criminal career paradigm provides a useful vehicle for informing and facilitating the development of effective policies and practices aimed toward controlling and preventing crime and criminal behavior across the life course.

Introduction

The criminal career paradigm has emerged over the past three decades and is one of the most dominant perspectives for facilitating empirical research about criminal offending behavior. The modern understanding of the criminal career approach dates to work by Alfred Blumstein and colleagues (1986); however, the precursors to this form of thinking had its origins in prior work examining offending birth cohorts (cf. Wolfgang et al. 1972) as well as research examining controversial policy responses to crime (Greenwood and Abrahamse 1982).

The rise of the criminal career approach and the proliferation of research on aspects of criminal careers have coincided with the rise of the life course approach in Criminology. Life course Criminology, which incorporates Developmental Criminology (LeBlanc and Loeber 1998), represents an approach for examining offending behavior over time, through agegraded sequences as well as contexts that are both meaningful and subject to change (Piquero and Mazerolle 2001). According to this approach the life course incorporates age-graded roles, responsibilities, and institutional contexts and sequences that develop over time (Elder 1995). The life course approach provides a rich framework for understanding behavioral change and continuity over time and across the age-graded life span. It includes concepts such as trajectories over the life course as well as transitions and turning points (Sampson and Laub 1993).

A related way of conceptualizing the life course approach involves embracing the concept of offending pathways which vary over time and are influenced by a range of social contexts. Overall, the life course perspective presents unique opportunities for developing a comprehensive understanding of criminal behavior. The life course approach is entirely consistent with the criminal career paradigm, and both approaches have implications for informing policy directions aimed at preventing and controlling criminal behavior.

In the following sections, a presentation of the criminal career approach is provided. This is followed by an examination of policy responses to crime and criminal behavior which relate to key dimensions of criminal careers across the life course.

The Nature Of Criminal Careers

The criminal career approach examines dimensions of offending behavior and aims to categorize such meaningful dimensions into concepts that foster empirical assessment and understanding. The criminal career approach differentiates individual patterns into three broad phases, including the onset or initiation of offending, the active offending phase, as well as the desistance or termination phase. Criminal careers differ with regard to when they begin (early or late onset), how they proceed (highly specialized vs. versatile, high or low frequency, etc.), and whether and when they finish or terminate (desist or persist).

Over the past 20 years, a wealth of research has uncovered various aspects of criminal careers. For example, research supports the finding that offenders with an early age at onset to offending are at an enhanced risk for a serious and persistent criminal career (Moffitt 1993; Patterson and Yoerger 1997). Offenders with a later-onset age tend to have less prolonged offending careers and stronger prospects for completing school, securing employment, and leading a life with diminished offending risks in adulthood. Importantly, the precursors for early and late onset offending vary and consequently have implications for prevention efforts.

The bulk of the criminal career can be described by an individual’s offending frequency, the nature of their offending with respect to offense type (e.g., violence, property crime), as well as whether offending is escalating in seriousness over time. Indeed, research consistently finds that serious offenders are those that begin their careers early, exhibit a high frequency of offending across diverse or versatile types of offending including violence, over a prolonged or persistent period of time (Moffitt 1993). Importantly, it is crucial to ascertain the nature, dimensions, and precursors for high-frequency offending, as well as factors that relate to versatile or specialist offending patterns because the opportunities for prevention are informed by the diverse nature of offending causation.

In terms of the later stages of criminal careers, research illustrates factors related to desistance or career termination (Laub and Sampson 2003; Sampson and Laub 1993) as well as factors related to the process of desistance (Bushway et al. 2001). Increasingly, research reveals the value of employment skills and experiences, as well as the protective influences and consequent informal social control related to developing meaningful intimate relationships including marriage (Horney et al. 1995). Clearly, understanding when, how, and why active offenders refrain from further offending is significant for informing a range of programs and practices to minimize offending persistence.

The value of the criminal career approach rests in the meaningfulness of the concepts for capturing criminal career dimensions (e.g., onset, frequency), the ability to identity correlates for related career dimensions, the ability to inform extant theories about criminal behavior, as well as in utilizing the knowledge gained to inform policy and practice directions to foster greater crime prevention and control. It is to this issue we turn in the next section.

Criminal Careers And Crime And Justice Policy And Practice

The past 20–30 years has borne witness to an increasing emphasis on understanding criminal careers as well as an emphasis on understanding crime across the life course. These developments have co-occurred during a period whereby an increasing emphasis on evidence-based policy and practice has occurred across the western world.

Criminal justice policy making has been observed to be oftentimes a haphazard exercise fraught with ideological influences as well as misinformed conceptions about crime, its causes, as well as what constitutes effective crime control and prevention programs (Cullen and Gendreau 2001; Currie 1993). Over the past 15 years, there has been an increasing push toward evidence-informed policy responses, and many criminologists have been instrumental in supporting such directions. These movements have also been reinforced by a public increasingly frustrated with ineffective and/or wasteful crime policy responses. It is within this context that the role of research knowledge about criminal careers across the life course is well placed to inform responses to criminal behavior. Indeed, if the precursors of criminal career dimensions vary, then the policy and practice responses need to be differentiated to address various aspects of criminal career dimensions. For example, the policy responses for reducing onset to criminality may well need to differ from the policy responses that reduce violent offending, frequent offending, or chronic offending. A large body of research has indeed addressed these issues. We turn now to considerations of policy responses to crime across the life course.

Policy And Practice Focus Areas Across Criminal Career Dimensions And The Life Course: Preventing Or Delaying Offending Onset

Given that criminal careers are often established early in the life course, programs aimed at reducing or delaying offending onset represent important areas for investment. The past decade has seen a push toward early intervention programs as such efforts seek to provide effective supportive conditions and protective influences around young people at risk for embarking on an offending pathway (i.e., onset). Programs and policies designed to prevent onset to an offending pathway are generally targeted toward family or school settings because they represent important institutional contexts whereby effective interventions can occur.

There are several examples of programs aimed at preventing offending onset. For example, a Nurse-Family Partnership program designed by David Olds has been aimed at supporting pregnant mothers through enhanced visits before and after the birth to assist them with supportive information and assistance in dealing with young children. Three randomized controlled trials have been conducted related to this program, and improvements in health and economic outcomes have been observed which have subsequent benefits for reducing crime. A study on the crime reduction benefits of this program demonstrates discernible reductions in arrests and convictions as well as reduced drug- and alcohol-related problems in comparisons to control subjects (Olds et al. 1998).

Another area of focus for delaying or preventing onset involves parent training programs. Parent training programs are aimed at providing effective parenting models and skills which subsequently translate into improved socialization of the child. These programs are especially aimed at fostering improved social and emotional competence in young people, readiness for school, as well as addressing conduct and behavioral challenges. One of the developers of an effective program, Dr. Carolyn Webster-Stratton has been at the forefront of research demonstrating the effectiveness of such approaches (Webster-Stratton and Taylor 2001). Numerous studies have demonstrated that early family/parent training programs are effective in reducing crime in adolescence and adulthood.

A range of additional programs have shown good success in supporting children in their development and preparation for school, with the Perry Preschool Project a notable standout (Schweinhart 2007). Additionally, a number of school-based delinquency prevention programs have shown good promise in preventing delinquency initiation and programs which target cognitive processes and critical thinking and behavioral skills appear to be worthy of further investment (Gottfredson 2001).

Reducing High-Frequency And Chronic Offending

Offenders who engage in serious, violent, frequent, and persistent criminal behavior generate a high degree of policy and program attention. Such chronic, high-rate offenders generate a high volume of the crime which is managed through the criminal justice system and which creates a high degree of harm for the community. In response, several policies and programs have been implemented with varying degrees of success. The 1980s, for example, included a push toward selective incapacitation approaches for chronic offenders (Greenwood and Abrahamse 1982). Selective incapacitation aimed to further prolong prison sentences for chronic, high-frequency offenders to ensure their offending risks could be removed from community exposure. Such approaches, while popular in some circles, failed to garner support due to concern over the effectiveness and fairness of such approaches.

A further example of a “get tough” policy approach relates to the three strikes and you’re in policy across many jurisdictions. Such policies, while popular among a subset of the community, tended not to persist because of cost concerns, concerns about their minimal impact of crime across the community, as well as concerns over sentencing equity and consistency.

A further area of challenge in designing programs and responses for serious offenders relates to conceptions of specialized offending patterns which require program attention. For example, a range of programs exist for dealing with sexual offenders or domestic violence offenders but much of the evidence suggests that such programs are of mixed effectiveness. A major explanation for such equivocal results is that most high-frequency, serious offenders exhibit versatile offending patterns and therefore require responses that reflect their generalized criminal tendencies. Thus, more generalized policy and program responses have preventative implications for domestic violence as well as sexual offending.

While there are encouraging results emerging from a range of prevention programs (e.g., Communities That Care, youth mentoring), the move toward multisystemic therapy (MST) programs among several program providers is especially encouraging. MST was developed by Dr. Scott Henggeler. The program provides intensive family- and community-focused treatment which aims to confront the institutional systems that influence chronic and violent juvenile offenders. MST views individuals embedded within various systems involving family, community, peers, etc. Thus, the intensive program response often includes teachers, friends, as well as family members. In general, the MST program is aimed at the high-frequency, high-rate, and serious offender group. Over a period of several years and studies, MST reveals consistently positive results across various domains including school, family, and crime. For example, evaluations of MST have revealed improvements in keeping youth in school, improvements in family relationships, reductions in drug and alcohol use, as well as large reductions in rearrests of up to 70 %. Consequently, MST is one of the most impressive programs available for addressing serious, violent, and chronic offenders.

Finally, important opportunities exist for correctional rehabilitation programs to target areas of intervention for persistent, high-risk offenders. While correctional rehabilitation has been out of favor at times, the weight of research evidence demonstrates the important prosocial outcomes which emanate from effective programs (Andrews et al. 1990). A series of studies consistently reveal the positive results that can be observed through investing in programs that target key areas of intervention need (antisocial attitudes, critical cognitive processing skills, etc.), especially for high-risk offenders, and in programs that are responsive or tailored to the learning styles of offenders (Andrews et al. 1990).

Facilitating Desistance And Career Termination

Fostering desistance from crime represents an ongoing public policy challenge. Research on criminal careers illustrates how offending changes across the life course and reveals multiple areas for prevention, in particular in the emerging adulthood phase of the life course. Key areas of focus for fostering desistance relate to the need for employment skills, educational attainment, substance abuse prevention, as well as opportunities for meaningful relationship development.

Criminologists John Laub and Rob Sampson have been at the forefront in undertaking research on how informal social control in adulthood can foster desistance. Experiences in acquiring employment and meaningful intimate relationships (e.g., marriage) have been shown to support offending desistance (Sampson and Laub 1992) in adulthood. Thus, investing in the employment skills of established or active offenders represents an important opportunity for fostering desistance. A similar observation holds for education. Increased levels of education are consistently related to desistance and investments in educational opportunities for active offenders, much like job skills, represent important opportunities to strengthen social control and social ties to prosocial institutions. With increased educational attainment, expanded employment opportunities arise, and such investments in conformity can lead to reductions in re-offending.

Given the ongoing relationship between drugs and crime, it appears that desistance is not easily achieved among offenders with drug abuse problems. Thus, efforts at fostering drug abuse treatment among active offenders are an important investment toward reducing persistent offending over time. Moreover, there is clear and established evidence which shows that among serious offenders with drug abuse problems, participating in treatment is associated with reductions in drug use, higher employment rates, as well as reductions in crime.

Challenges And Implications

The explosion of research on criminal careers has shaped understanding about criminality across the life course. Beyond its direct contribution to shaping understanding as well as theories about criminal behavior, this knowledge is highly significant for informing practical responses to crime and ensuring effective crime policies are enacted, implemented, and supported.

There are a range of implications regarding the importance of placing criminal career research findings into a policy and practice context. For example, while the evidence about effective policy responses to crime and criminal behavior evolves over time, the embrace of politicians and policy leaders to such knowledge is highly variable. At times, evolving knowledge is met with evolving acceptance. At other times, evidence-informed policy and practice appears to take a backward step. A case in point relates to the embrace of correctional boot camps for juvenile offenders. The research from the 1990s to 2000s consistently revealed problems associated with boot camps and that they were not effective in addressing juvenile offending (MacKenzie et al. 2001). Yet, a recently elected state government in Australia has campaigned on a get tough on crime election platform and is implementing a “new style” boot camp to address serious juvenile crime. It is unsurprising that the leader in charge of this initiative has a background in the military and obviously knows what works, despite evidence to the contrary. In summary, gains have been hard fought and achieved in relation to the embrace of evidence to inform policy and practice around the western world, but such gains can be quickly lost. Thus, it is important to be ever mindful and vigilant about the fragility of such gains as new generations of politicians and political masters require exposure to evidence about the nature of criminal careers as well as evidence about what works to prevent and control criminal behavior across the life course.

While there are strong connections between criminal career dimensions and areas for public policy focus and investment (e.g., delaying onset), it is important to understand the role of social context and related factors that can influence criminal career dimensions as well as the required policy responses to prevent and control crime. This observation simply calls attention to the point that context matters and rarely is it the case that patterns of offending are invariant across gender, racial groups, and social class differentiations among other considerations. Indeed prior research has recognized the significant variations in criminal career dimensions as well as various risk factors across gender, race, and social class (Piquero et al. 2007).

Consider, for example, the role of gender. Although a number of common factors are found to increase risk for both males and females, some differences do appear in the overall sensitivity to certain risk and protective factors as well as in the developmental course and nature of antisocial behavior between the genders. For example, community-level factors such as socioeconomic disadvantage have been found to affect girls as young as 5 years old. There is also some evidence that females may be more responsive than males to the protective influence of factors such as prosocial role models, reduced community violence, and enhanced extracurricular opportunities. Females appear to be more sensitive to the adverse effects of poor familial attachment and conflict but also more sensitive than males to the protective effect of strong attachment to family.

Female juvenile offenders tend to present with multiple and chronic family-level risk factors and a family environment which is typically more adverse than that experienced by male juvenile offenders. Females associating with delinquent male peers, particularly females experiencing an early-onset menarche, are at significantly greater risk of adolescent-onset conduct problems (Moffitt et al. 2001). Moreover, puberty presents a time of enhanced risk for females, particularly those with preexisting externalizing behavior problems or otherwise salient risk factors such as academic difficulties, a history of abuse, or parental criminality/psychopathology (ChesneyLind and Sheldon 2004).

At an individual level, the risk associated with neurocognitive difficulties seems to be more salient for males (Moffitt et al. 2001). Also, males typically exhibit higher trait levels of impulsivity and negative emotionality than females. Importantly, it is this difference which appears to primarily underlie the marked difference between males and females in the prevalence of adolescent antisocial behavior and conduct disorder (Moffitt et al. 2001).

There is also some evidence that developmental trajectories to antisocial behavior and delinquency differ between the genders. Moffitt (1993) distinguished between two etiological trajectories to adolescent antisocial behavior problems: one which begins and typically ends in adolescence (adolescence-limited) and one with an early, childhood-onset which continues on into adulthood (life course persistent). However, more recently other researchers (e.g., Silverthorn et al. 2001) have argued that while Moffitt’s (1993) adolescent-limited and life course persistent taxonomy captures the timing of both male and female antisocial behavior/offending patterns, it may be failing to identify a subgroup of adolescent-limited females who exhibit a more serious pattern of offending/antisocial behavior problems as well as a more problematic childhood risk profile.

The above description illustrates that diversity exists in the criminogenic risk factors for males and females, and such diversity has implications for the flow on toward criminal career development and related dimensions. Such diverse contexts and influences on criminal career initiation and related dimensions obviously transcend gender and involve further contexts including race, age, and social class, among other areas. Prevention and crime control efforts developed to address certain aspects of criminal career dimensions (e.g., onset, frequency) require flexibility and adaptability to accommodate for contextual diversity. It is clearly the case that when policy simplicity tries to address behavioral complexity, very poor crime reduction results are observed. What communities and governments need to strive for are ensuring that policies and programs aimed at controlling and preventing crime are informed by the best knowledge around behavioral complexity of criminal career dimensions and diversity to support appropriate translation into comprehensive policy and programmatic development and delivery that moves importantly beyond the one size fits all approach so often observed around the world.

Conclusion

The criminal career paradigm provides a useful approach for understanding unique dimensions of offending behavior. The approach enables researchers to examine correlates of unique career dimensions (e.g., onset, persistence, specialization) and uncover diversity in the nature of criminal careers. At the same time, the criminal career approach has several implications for fostering knowledge about policies and practices aimed toward crime control and prevention and in this way can contribute directly to effective crime reduction policies.

This research paper has demonstrated a range of policy and program approaches that emerge from considering the criminal career approach. In the main, responses that are informed by key aspects of career dimensions are best placed to impact upon crime and criminal behavior. A range of policy and program options exist for addressing the initial stages of criminal careers. Examples include nurse home visitation programs, parent training, as well as early school transition programs. By contrast, more established criminal careers require specific approaches in response to career dimensions. For example, the frequent offender, the persistent, or the chronic offender requires more concentrated criminal justice related interventions. Examples of efforts that appear to be ineffective are evident (e.g., selective incapacitation, boot camps, three strikes), however, there are encouraging programs worthy of investment including multisystemic therapy (MST) as well as a range of cognitive behavioral treatment programs aimed at the prison-based population of offenders who will one day return to their communities.

Responses aimed at fostering desistance and criminal career termination require attention to the criminogenic factors that prolong criminal offending and drug abuse treatment programs show good promise in this area. Moreover, greater attention to fostering informal social bonds to employment experiences as well as to intimate relationships represent good opportunities for turning points away from crime. Thus opportunities for acquiring job skills and education represent useful investments aimed toward fostering the process of desistance over time.

Knowledge about criminal career dimensions and their understanding continues to evolve. While current understanding about effective, evidence-based policy responses to diverse crime problems is strengthening over time, a constant challenge is in ensuring that evidence about what works to control and prevent crime is embraced by the relevant authorities. Importantly, the criminal career approach is ideally placed for fostering knowledge about varying aspects of offending across the life course as well as illustrating a range of useful policy investments for preventing and controlling criminal activity.

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