Criminal Careers and "Career Criminals," Volume II (1986) / Chapter Skim
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4. Co-offender Influences on Criminal Careers
4. Co-offender Influences on Criminal Careers
Pages 121-160
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From page 121... ...
The reader is referred to the Acknowledgments section at the end of this chapter. 72z career criminals selectively, i.e., to remove from society those offenders who have high individual rates of offending.
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From page 122... ...
Were one able, for example, to identify high-rate offen(lers who recruited a large number of persons into committing clelinquent acts or persons who hac] a substantial effect on the individual crime rate of a large nu~nber of offenders, one might want to select CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS those offender-recruiters for special treatment in a criminal justice system.
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From page 123... ...
How the size of offending groups affects the size of an offender population is seen even more dramatically for robbery offenses. Just over one-half of all robbery TABLE 1 Group Composition of Burglary Incidents and Offenders Group Composition Number Percent Burglary Incidents With one offender only With two or more offenders Total burglary incidents Burglary Offenders Single offender in incident 155 151 306 155 Two or more offenders in incident 312 Total burglary offenders 467 50.6 49.4 100.0 33.2 66.8 100.0 SOURCE: Peoria Crime Reduction Council (1979)
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From page 124... ...
These views are not based on the analysis of criminal careers or histories, however, but rather on the group composition of offending, especially of juvenile offencI ing. The statistical basis for the conclusion ordinarily is the individual and group composition of crime events rather than histories of offending for the offenders involved in those events.
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From page 125... ...
Although information on the number of accomplices in each event of an offender's criminal history is generally lacking, some idea of the mix of Tone and accomplice offending can be gained by examining the criminal history of the juvenile offenders in the stucly by the Peoria Crime Reduction Council (1979~. The 467 Peoria juveniles apprehended for at least one burglary during a 7.5-year period were involved in 2,820 offenses for which 3,426 charges were filed.
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From page 126... ...
were among the first to point out that most delinquent offenses are committed with at least one other person and that even most youths regardecl as Tone offenders occasionally engage in clelinquency with a companion. Somewhat later, Shaw and CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS Meyer (1929)
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From page 127... ...
Reckless (1961) founct that the median age of first contact with juvenile authorities was 13 for incarcerated juvenile offenders and that there were no significant differences in age of onset or the presence or absence of companions at the first officially recorded (lelinquent act (Eynon and Reckless:169~.
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From page 128... ...
found that first police contact at a very young age was CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS associated only with being mate and having friends in trouble with the police. Yet those two variables accounted for at most one-fourth of the variance, inclicating that the personal interview variables did not include the most important determinants of age at first police contact (Petersilia, 1980:349~.
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From page 129... ...
The most active and seriously delinquent juvenile suspects were 45 times more likely to commit crimes with the same associates than were less active juveniles from the study population. Quite clearly, accomplices in offending change quite frequently in juvenile ca 729 reers.
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661. CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS groups, 41 percent moved to another area of Chicago (SuttIes: 1671.
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From page 131... ...
Swedish community in that some youths who move into other areas affiliate with other territorial groups (Keiser, 1969; Short and Moland, 1976:1681. Transiency thus both expands the choice of accomplices and links territorially based groups.
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From page 132... ...
Sex Somewhat over 1 in 10 Tone offenders in crimes of personal violence in the United States are female offenders (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1984:Table 401. CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS The proportion of female Tone offenders varies by type of violent crime, being negligible for the crime of rape and greatest for the crime of assault.
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From page 133... ...
Race Blacks are somewhat less likely than whites to be solo offenders. Although data are lacking for a population of adult offenders, the NCS data for 1982 disclose that 72 percent of all violent criminal victimizations by whites, compared with 60 percent of those by blacks, were single-offender incidents (BIS:caTculated from Tables 44 and 491.
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From page 134... ...
than in the rest of Europe or in North America, police statistics for adult offenders in West Germany disclose rather marked variation in solo offending by type of offense. Among the major offenses in which at least 8 of every 10 offenders committed the offense alone were murcler; sexual offenses, such as exhibitionism and sexual murder; drug abuse involving heroin and cocaine; and the white-colIar offenses of embezzlement, forgery, and fraud.
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From page 135... ...
Shaw's (1938) tracing ofthe accomplices in the criminal careers of five Martin brothers illustrates this territorial concentration of career offenders.
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From page 136... ...
At the close of that time the brothers ranged in age from 25 to 35 years. Four of the five had by then CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS terminated their criminal careers.
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From page 137... ...
Most offenders appear to select different accomplices, especially as adult offenders. Not too much is known about how and why accomplices are selected.
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From page 138... ...
Structure of Adult Networks Surprisingly little is known about how adults make contacts and decide to offend together. Apart from the highly organized criminal activity that is conducted by syn
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From page 139... ...
For some, the syndicate facilitates the search. What seems to characterize the network among adult offenders is that adult offenders patronize the same places, make the same kinds of transactions, and often reside in the same area.
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From page 140... ...
so themselves serve as links among their groups. They are the most likely to select accomplices from outside a group in which they may be re garde c3 as a core CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS member.
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What is critical is how some few get channeled into becoming a high-rate or a specialized offender, such as in occupational theft. Loosely structured groups in networks are critical perhaps in leading to high-rate offending careers.
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From page 142... ...
The CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS second group included persons who police concluded had committee! a crime with someone in the 1957-1968 cohort during the follow-up perioc]
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From page 143... ...
Evidence that there are recruiters comes from the Peoria juvenile residential burglary study. Recall that there were 306 residential burglaries, 151 of which involved at least two co-offenclers (Peoria Crime Reduction Council, 1979~.
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From page 144... ...
CHANGES IN THE GROUP COMPOSITION OF OFFENDING One can postulate three kinds of criminal careers characterized by distinct types of offenders and patterns of offending. The first type of offender always offends alone and can be designated as having a solo offending career.
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From page 145... ...
Yet, information from longitudinal studies of criminal careers is lacking to determine whether these aggregate statis tics support the contention that offenders move from predominantly group to predominantly solo offending in the course of a criminal career. Before alternative explanations for these aggregate changes are offered, several other facts merit attention because they are consistent with some alternative explanations: ~ The peak participation rate in offending occurs around age 17 or 18; the absolute size of the offender population declines rapidly thereafter.
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From page 146... ...
This functional model is consistent warn tne selective attrition of low-offending persons, the decrease in the size of offending groups with the age of offenders, and the increase in solo offending wherein adults seem to commit offenses that usually do not require a division of labor. Yet, it floes not seem to account very well for the mix of solo and group offending characteristic of many criminal careers.
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From page 147... ...
What may be of special concern for timing incapacitative forms of intervention is identifying such individuals and detecting when the shift to predominantly solo offending occurs. GROUP OFFENDING AND DESISTANCE FROM CRIMINAL CAREERS Earlier it was conjectured that the shift towar(ls solo offending with age might be accounted for by the selective attrition of group offenders, i.e., group offenders clesist at an early age.
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From page 148... ...
The second group of 48 was labeled continuing delinquents because each had one or more criminal convictions since turning 17 or ac3mittec3 to committing one or more major offenses.8 Temporary delinquents were conviction-free for a period of at least 3 years; continuing delinquents had a continuing record of convictions or acknowledged offenses. The largest single difference between , c7 O CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS that the continuing delinquents were more likely to commit their offenses alone.
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From page 149... ...
ties by moving out of the neighborhood or entering military service could account for a sizable proportion of Resistance in the late teens and early 20s. The importance of environmental as well as status kansitions on Resistance rates is buttressed by a major study of aclults paroled directly to the U.S.
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From page 150... ...
What is critical in this deterrence is that one knows the person who is being punished and consequently has a more (lirect basis for vicar CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS iously experiencing the punishment and calculating one's risk. This archetype probably accounts for much of the Resistance at young ages ant!
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From page 151... ...
By (lisrupting pattems of search for co-offen~lers, incarceration may also shift offenders from preclominantly group to predominantly solo offending. Apart from (lisrupting cooffending patterns, incarceration also may have specific deterrent effects, especially
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From page 152... ...
CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS rather than by-proclucts of group affiliation. INTERVENTION ISSUES AND GROUP OFFENDING Group offending is most characteristic of what we think of as juvenile delinquency and characterizes juvenile careers.
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From page 153... ...
sion r1s Is. Early Identification of Career Criminals One of the barriers to early identification of adult criminal careers has been the high apprehension rate of juveniles such that the population of offenders for disposition is large.
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From page 154... ...
Sanctioning Group Offenders Our adult system of justice is to a substantial degree based on preserving the individual integrity of co-offenders as they are processed in the criminal justice system. This means that not only must their individual history of offending be disregarded when trying a current set of charges but also inclividuals involved in CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS the same offense can be treated clifferently based on their role in the charged offenses and that differences in their prior offending or personal histories can be taken into account at sentencing.
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From page 155... ...
Intervention Strategies and Group Offending Intervention strategies disrupt the lives of individuals ant! affect their criminal careers.
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From page 156... ...
What is neecled is a comparison of overlapping criminal careers to determine whether incapacitation in the career of any offender has any effect on the indiviclual rate of offending of his co-offenders subsequent to incapacitation. Given the fact that the more organized gangs of career criminals are more adept at recruiting replacements for incarcerated members, incarceration may save only those crimes that are solo offenses.
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From page 157... ...
That information must be obtained from prospective longitudinal cohort studies that approximate more closely the design of the Swedish community study under taken by Sarnecki (19821. That design is based on a social-network approach and expands the study population to inclucle all co-o~enders who are not initially part of the cohort.
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From page 158... ...
CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS 1983 New Perspectives on Prisons and Imprisonment. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
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From page 159... ...
Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms. Peoria Crime Reduction Council 1979 Criminal Activity of Juvenile Residential Burglars.
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From page 160... ...
CRIMINAL CAREERS AND CAREER CRIMINALS American Sociological Review 26:699712. White, PI., Boorman, S
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