Measuring The Intermittency Of Criminal Careers

Keywords

Criminal careers; Intermittency; Offending

Abstract

The intermittency, or time gaps between criminal events, has received very little theoretical and empirical attention in developmental/life-course criminology. Several reasons account for lack of research on intermittency, including limited data sources containing information on the time between events and the prioritization of persistence—and especially desistance—in developmental/life-course criminology. This article sets out to provide a descriptive portrait of intermittency and in so doing aims to understand and explain intermittency within and between individuals, how it varies with age over the life course, and how it covaries with the seriousness of offending. Longer intermittency is characteristic of offenders with earlier onset as well as those who offend less frequently, whereas high-frequency/early-onset offenders have less intermittency. Findings suggest that intermittent gaps between offenses relate to offense seriousness. As offenders age, the gaps between offenses increase. Each of these effects is disaggregated among chronic and nonchronic (recidivist) offenders to demonstrate the intermittent patterns of different criminal careers. Implications for theoretical and empirical research on intermittency are highlighted.

Publication Date

1-1-2015

Publication Title

Crime and Delinquency

Volume

61

Issue

8

Number of Pages

1078-1103

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128712466382

Socpus ID

84960363173 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84960363173

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