Although youth crime and young offenders have attracted a significant amount of ongoing research attention and have given rise to a voluminous amount of literature devoted to describing and explaining their existence and providing suggestions for what may be done, much less attention has been paid to the youth court itself and, more specifically, the convictions of young persons over time. Using the Youth Court Survey as a source of longitudinal data, the present study describes the youth court convictions of a birth cohort of Canadian offenders from the time they officially enter the system at age 12 up to their 18th birthdays. The criminal career paradigm is used in the present study to guide the detailed and structured analysis of the key features of these conviction histories by partitioning convictions into four central parameters: prevalence of convictions, individual frequencies, age at first conviction, and patterns of transition (i.e. specialization and versatility). Findings revealed that approximately 23,000 males and 6,000 females—12 percent and 3 percent of the 1979/80 birth cohort, respectively—were convicted of at least one offence in youth court. While the patterns of convictions were found to be similar for both males and females, the prevalence among females rose relatively faster at younger ages and peaked earlier. Findings also indicated that the vast majority of young people who were convicted in a Canadian youth court had a conviction history consisting of only one conviction. However, findings also highlighted the extent to which the phenomenon of a concentration of offending, which has been noted in numerous countries, is present in Canada with a small group of chronic offenders being responsible for a disproportionate amount of court activity. The study also found that the younger an individual was at the time of their first conviction, the more likely they were to accumulate future convictions, and also to receive a conviction for a violent offence. Lastly, findings revealed that the youth court career is characterized by neither complete specialization nor complete versatility, but rather that these two tendencies in offending exist side by side. Overall, the current study provides a more complete picture of the conviction history of this cohort of young offenders than one-time snapshots from individual surveys could allow.

Although youth crime and young offenders have attracted a significant amount of ongoing research attention and have given rise to a voluminous amount of literature devoted to describing and explaining their existence and providing suggestions for what may be done, much less attention has been paid to the youth court itself and, more specifically, the convictions of young persons over time. Using the Youth Court Survey as a source of longitudinal data, the present study describes the youth court convictions of a birth cohort of Canadian offenders from the time they officially enter the system at age 12 up to their 18th birthdays. The criminal career paradigm is used in the present study to guide the detailed and structured analysis of the key features of these conviction histories by partitioning convictions into four central parameters: prevalence of convictions, individual frequencies, age at first conviction, and patterns of transition (i.e. specialization and versatility). Findings revealed that approximately 23,000 males and 6,000 females—12 percent and 3 percent of the 1979/80 birth cohort, respectively—were convicted of at least one offence in youth court. While the patterns of convictions were found to be similar for both males and females, the prevalence among females rose relatively faster at younger ages and peaked earlier. Findings also indicated that the vast majority of young people who were convicted in a Canadian youth court had a conviction history consisting of only one conviction. However, findings also highlighted the extent to which the phenomenon of a concentration of offending, which has been noted in numerous countries, is present in Canada with a small group of chronic offenders being responsible for a disproportionate amount of court activity. The study also found that the younger an individual was at the time of their first conviction, the more likely they were to accumulate future convictions, and also to receive a conviction for a violent offence. Lastly, findings revealed that the youth court career is characterized by neither complete specialization nor complete versatility, but rather that these two tendencies in offending exist side by side. Overall, the current study provides a more complete picture of the conviction history of this cohort of young offenders than one-time snapshots from individual surveys could allow.

The best predictor of future criminal behavior is past criminal behavior. At the same time, the vast majority of people who engage in crime are teenagers and stop offending with age. Explaining these empirical findings has been the main task of life-course criminology, and contributing to an understanding of how and why offenders continue their criminal careers once they have started, and how and why they stop, is also the purpose of this dissertation. To do this, the dissertation studies a number of facets of the criminal career: the importance of childhood risk factors (Paper I), the notions of turning points (Paper II) and intermittency (Paper III), and the connection between masculinities and criminal careers (Paper IV). In contrast to much life-course criminological research, the dissertation mainly relies on qualitative life history interviews, collected as part of The Stockholm Life Course Project. The findings suggest a need for increased sensitivity to offenders’ lives, and their complexity. Whereas continuity and change can be understood within a frame of age-graded social control, this perspective needs to be extended and developed further, in mainly three ways. First, the concept and phenomenon of human agency needs closer study. Second, lived experiences of various forms of social stratification (e.g. gender, ethnicity, and so on) must be integrated into understandings of continuity and change in crime, seeing as phenomena such as social control may be contingent on these in important ways. Third, this dissertation highlights the need to go beyond the transition to adulthood and explore the later stages of criminal careers. In closing, the dissertation suggests that we move toward a focus on the contingencies of criminal careers and the factors, events, and processes that help shape them. If we understand those contingencies in more detail, possible implications for policy and practice also emerge. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defence the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Submitted</p>

In this thesis I have investigated the process of self-schematic transformation that has been argued that offenders undergo in order to desist from crime. In this thesis I have used narrative interviews with twelve desisting offenders consisting of five non-violent offenders and seven violent offenders. I have analysed these narratives using a social cognitive perspective in order to seek an understanding of the self-schemas of the offenders. The results show that the desistance is the result of a longer process and the turning point experienced by the participants were the high point of this process. Social influences were highly important for both groups. Both groups were low in agency, with the exception to their new selves and the desisting process; still, the violent offenders were somewhat higher than the non-violent offenders. In general both groups used outside sources to explain their past crimes and substance abuse, though the violent offenders did this in less extent. Further, the analysis showed that the self-schema of the desisting offenders could be divided into three parts; the former self, the true self, and the new self, or who they used to be, who they have always been, and who they are now. The degree to which the offenders expressed these different selves varied between the two groups.

Rates of recorded crime have been falling in many countries in Western Europe, including Scotland, since the early 1990s. This marks the reversal of a trend of increasing levels of crime seen since the 1950s. Despite this important recent change, most analyses of the ‘crime drop’ have focused on recorded crime or victimisation rates aggregated to national or regional level. It is little known how patterns of offending or conviction have changed at the individual level. As a result it is not known how the crime drop is manifest in changing offending or conviction rates, or how patterns of criminal careers have changed over this period. The aim of this thesis is to explore trends in convictions across a number of criminal careers parameters – the age-crime curve, prevalence and frequency, polarisation and conviction pathways – over the course of the crime drop in Scotland. The results presented here are based on a secondary analysis of the Scottish Offenders Index, a census of convictions in Scottish courts, between 1989 and 2011. Analysis is conducted using a range of descriptive statistical techniques to examine change across age, sex and time. Change in the age-crime curve is analysed using data visualisation techniques and descriptive statistics. Standardisation and decomposition analysis is used to analyse the effects of prevalence, frequency and population change. Trends in conviction are also examined between groups identified statistically using Latent Class Analysis to assess the polarisation of convictions, and trends in the movement between these groups over time provides an indication of changing pathways of conviction. This thesis finds a sharp contrast between falling rates of conviction for young people, particularly young men, and increases in conviction rates for those between their mid-twenties and mid-forties, with distinct periods of change between 1989- 2000, 2000-2007 and 2007-2011. These trends are driven primarily by changes in the prevalence of conviction, and result in an increasingly even distribution of convictions over age. Analysis across latent classes shows some evidence of convictions becoming less polarised for younger men and women but increasingly polarised for older men and women. Similarities in trends analysed across latent classes between men and women of the same age suggest that the process driving these trends is broadly similar within age groups. Increases in conviction rates for those over 21 are explained by both greater onset of conviction and higher persistence in conviction, particularly between 1998 and 2004. The results of this thesis suggest that explanations of the crime drop must have a greater engagement with contrasting trends across age and sex to be able to properly explain falling conviction rates. These results also reinforce the need for criminal careers research to better understand the impact of recent changes social context on patterns of convictions over people’s lives. The distinct periods identified in these results suggest a potential effect of changes in operation of the justice system in Scotland leading to high rates of convictions in the early 2000s. However, the descriptive focus of this analysis and its reliance upon administrative data from a single country mean this thesis cannot claim to definitively explain these trends. As a result, replication of this research in another jurisdiction is encouraged to assess whether trends identified are particular to Scotland.

A contribuição desta pesquisa para o conhecimento científico está em tecer considerações sobre a viabilidade do estudo da criminalidade brasileira à luz das noções de carreiras criminosas e de trajetórias desenvolvimentais, contendo uma parte inteiramente dedicada ao estudo teórico pertinente, e outra contendo uma busca de conhecimentos por meio de pesquisa empírica. Do ponto de vista teórico, oferece uma síntese das proposições referentes aos conceitos de carreiras criminosas e de trajetórias de desenvolvimento da conduta delituosa; do ponto de vista empírico, estuda a atividade infracional de 157 adolescentes jurisdicionados do sexo masculino de modo a verificar a existência ou inexistência de carreiras, ou seja, padrões de atividades infracionais, oferecendo informações e sugestões para a implementação de políticas públicas aplicadas em favor do desenvolvimento individual e social, com as vistas voltadas ao fenômeno da delinqüência juvenil. O enfoque empírico da pesquisa é o descritivo, valendo-se de informações constantes em processos judiciais infracionais arquivados no cartório da Vara da Infância, da Juventude e do Idoso, da Comarca de Ribeirão Preto, Estado de São Paulo, buscando-se, sob uma perspectiva longitudinal retrospectiva, os históricos infracionais dos adolescentes sujeitos da pesquisa, conforme os registros oficiais disponíveis. Tendo como objetivo a descrição das variáveis relativas aos fatos processados como infrações e aos sujeitos a quem tais fatos foram atribuídos, obteve como resultados principais: todos os adolescentes do sexo masculino, constantes dos dados desta pesquisa, com idades entre 11 e 14 anos na data do primeiro boletim de ocorrência registrado (e que tenha originado um processo infracional em Ribeirão Preto-SP) foram processados, pelo menos, duas vezes; as infrações processadas que mais se destacam em termos de freqüência são o furto, o roubo, o porte de droga, o tráfico e a lesão corporal; a maioria dos sujeitos (89,3%) foram processados por 2 a 7 infrações, sendo assim reduzido o número de sujeitos que ultrapassa esta faixa; a participação de sujeitos em processos infracionais aumenta conforme a idade na data do registro do boletim de ocorrência que origine um processo; as idades com mais intensidade de boletins de ocorrência originando processos são as de 16 e 17 anos, correspondendo juntas a 70,8% de um total de 514 fatos processados, além do que 95% dos sujeitos tiveram seu último boletim de ocorrência registrado nas idades de 16 ou 17 anos. A idade na data do primeiro boletim de ocorrência é indicativo do número de infrações processada, sendo que quando mais cedo o sujeito tem um boletim de ocorrência registrado, e que origine um processo, participa de mais processos e esta participação se prolonga mais, durante a adolescência. Praticamente não há variação entre a gravidade da primeira e da última infração registrada. Desafios relativos à fonte de dados oficiais, como ausências e conflitos entre informações, é assunto crucial na interpretação dos resultados obtidos na presente pesquisa. / The contribution of this search for scientific knowledge is in weaving considerations on the viability of the Brazilian study of crime in the light of the concepts of criminal career and developmental trajectories, with a portion devoted entirely to the relevant theoretical study, and another containing a quest for knowledge through empirical research. From a theoretical viewpoint, offers a summary of proposals relating to concepts of criminal career and trajectories of development of offending; from the empirical viewpoint, studies the offending activity of 157 male adolescents in order to verify the existence of careers, or patterns of offending activity, offering information and suggestions for the implementation of public policies in favor of individual and social development, with views geared to the phenomenon of juvenile delinquency. The focus of empirical research is descriptive, using information contained in legal proceedings filed in the office for Children, Youth and Elderly (body of the São Paulo Justice Court), in Ribeirao Preto, São Paulo, with a retrospective longitudinal view, the historic of offending among adolescents subject of the research, according to the available official records. Aiming a description of the variables on the facts prosecuted as offenses and on the individuals to whom these facts were attributed, there are the following key results: all male adolescents, in the data from this study, aged between 11 and 14 years on the date of the first police record (and which has originated a judicial offending process in Ribeirao Preto-SP) were processed at least twice; the infractions that processed more prominently in terms of frequency are the theft, robbery, the carrying of drugs, drug traffic and injury; the majority of subjects (89.3%) were processed by 2 to 7 violations, and thus reduced the number of subjects that are beyond this range; the participation of individuals in offending judicial proceedings increases with age on the date of the police record that results in a process; the ages with more intensity of police recordings originating processes are 16 and 17 years, accounting together with a 70.8% from a total of 514 events processed; moreover 95% of the individuals had their last official event recorded on the ages of 16 or 17 years. The age at the time of the first police record indicates the number of violations processed, in which the earlier the individual has police record (which leads to a process) the more he participates in cases and this participation will last more during the adolescence. Virtually there are no variation between the seriousness of the first and the last recorded violation. Challenges of the official data, as absences and conflicting information, is a crucial issue in the interpretation of results obtained in this study.

A contribuição desta pesquisa para o conhecimento científico está em tecer considerações sobre a viabilidade do estudo da criminalidade brasileira à luz das noções de carreiras criminosas e de trajetórias desenvolvimentais, contendo uma parte inteiramente dedicada ao estudo teórico pertinente, e outra contendo uma busca de conhecimentos por meio de pesquisa empírica. Do ponto de vista teórico, oferece uma síntese das proposições referentes aos conceitos de carreiras criminosas e de trajetórias de desenvolvimento da conduta delituosa; do ponto de vista empírico, estuda a atividade infracional de 157 adolescentes jurisdicionados do sexo masculino de modo a verificar a existência ou inexistência de carreiras, ou seja, padrões de atividades infracionais, oferecendo informações e sugestões para a implementação de políticas públicas aplicadas em favor do desenvolvimento individual e social, com as vistas voltadas ao fenômeno da delinqüência juvenil. O enfoque empírico da pesquisa é o descritivo, valendo-se de informações constantes em processos judiciais infracionais arquivados no cartório da Vara da Infância, da Juventude e do Idoso, da Comarca de Ribeirão Preto, Estado de São Paulo, buscando-se, sob uma perspectiva longitudinal retrospectiva, os históricos infracionais dos adolescentes sujeitos da pesquisa, conforme os registros oficiais disponíveis. Tendo como objetivo a descrição das variáveis relativas aos fatos processados como infrações e aos sujeitos a quem tais fatos foram atribuídos, obteve como resultados principais: todos os adolescentes do sexo masculino, constantes dos dados desta pesquisa, com idades entre 11 e 14 anos na data do primeiro boletim de ocorrência registrado (e que tenha originado um processo infracional em Ribeirão Preto-SP) foram processados, pelo menos, duas vezes; as infrações processadas que mais se destacam em termos de freqüência são o furto, o roubo, o porte de droga, o tráfico e a lesão corporal; a maioria dos sujeitos (89,3%) foram processados por 2 a 7 infrações, sendo assim reduzido o número de sujeitos que ultrapassa esta faixa; a participação de sujeitos em processos infracionais aumenta conforme a idade na data do registro do boletim de ocorrência que origine um processo; as idades com mais intensidade de boletins de ocorrência originando processos são as de 16 e 17 anos, correspondendo juntas a 70,8% de um total de 514 fatos processados, além do que 95% dos sujeitos tiveram seu último boletim de ocorrência registrado nas idades de 16 ou 17 anos. A idade na data do primeiro boletim de ocorrência é indicativo do número de infrações processada, sendo que quando mais cedo o sujeito tem um boletim de ocorrência registrado, e que origine um processo, participa de mais processos e esta participação se prolonga mais, durante a adolescência. Praticamente não há variação entre a gravidade da primeira e da última infração registrada. Desafios relativos à fonte de dados oficiais, como ausências e conflitos entre informações, é assunto crucial na interpretação dos resultados obtidos na presente pesquisa. / The contribution of this search for scientific knowledge is in weaving considerations on the viability of the Brazilian study of crime in the light of the concepts of criminal career and developmental trajectories, with a portion devoted entirely to the relevant theoretical study, and another containing a quest for knowledge through empirical research. From a theoretical viewpoint, offers a summary of proposals relating to concepts of criminal career and trajectories of development of offending; from the empirical viewpoint, studies the offending activity of 157 male adolescents in order to verify the existence of careers, or patterns of offending activity, offering information and suggestions for the implementation of public policies in favor of individual and social development, with views geared to the phenomenon of juvenile delinquency. The focus of empirical research is descriptive, using information contained in legal proceedings filed in the office for Children, Youth and Elderly (body of the São Paulo Justice Court), in Ribeirao Preto, São Paulo, with a retrospective longitudinal view, the historic of offending among adolescents subject of the research, according to the available official records. Aiming a description of the variables on the facts prosecuted as offenses and on the individuals to whom these facts were attributed, there are the following key results: all male adolescents, in the data from this study, aged between 11 and 14 years on the date of the first police record (and which has originated a judicial offending process in Ribeirao Preto-SP) were processed at least twice; the infractions that processed more prominently in terms of frequency are the theft, robbery, the carrying of drugs, drug traffic and injury; the majority of subjects (89.3%) were processed by 2 to 7 violations, and thus reduced the number of subjects that are beyond this range; the participation of individuals in offending judicial proceedings increases with age on the date of the police record that results in a process; the ages with more intensity of police recordings originating processes are 16 and 17 years, accounting together with a 70.8% from a total of 514 events processed; moreover 95% of the individuals had their last official event recorded on the ages of 16 or 17 years. The age at the time of the first police record indicates the number of violations processed, in which the earlier the individual has police record (which leads to a process) the more he participates in cases and this participation will last more during the adolescence. Virtually there are no variation between the seriousness of the first and the last recorded violation. Challenges of the official data, as absences and conflicting information, is a crucial issue in the interpretation of results obtained in this study.

No description available.

No description available.

Uno degli aspetti più documentati del comportamento deviante è che una porzione considerevole di reati è commessa da più persone che collaborano tra loro, e non da criminali che agiscono in autonomia. Oltre ad analizzare le caratteristiche della compartecipazione nei reati, alcuni studi recenti si sono focalizzati sulla comprensione della sua evoluzione lungo la carriera criminale dell’individuo, e sul suo impatto sulla traiettoria criminale. Il concetto di collaborazione criminale è particolarmente rilevante nel contesto dei gruppi criminali organizzati, per i quali le interazioni tra i membri costituiscono l’essenza del loro funzionamento, e i reati commessi sono spesso logisticamente complessi. Ciononostante, il fenomeno della collaborazione criminale ha ricevuto scarsa attenzione nella ricerca sulla criminalità organizzata, e nessuno studio analizza il suo ruolo nel definire la traiettoria criminale del singolo individuo che entra a fare parte di un'organizzazione criminale. Il presente studio mira a colmare questa lacuna in letteratura analizzando i dati sui 178.427 reati commessi da tutti gli 11.138 individui condannati per associazione mafiosa in Italia tra il 1985 e il 2017. I dati includono informazioni sull’eventuale concorso in reato per ogni crimine commesso. L’analisi condotta si avvale di diverse metodologie quantitative con lo scopo di fornire un quadro descrittivo della collaborazione criminale nella criminalità organizzata; determinare se i membri delle organizzazioni criminali hanno diverse traiettorie longitudinali di collaborazione criminale; comprendere quale sia l’impatto di commettere crimini in collaborazione con altri individui sul comportamento criminale futuro; e studiare come la collaborazione criminale sia correlata con il reclutamento nella criminalità organizzata. I risultati dell’analisi dimostrano che il concorso in reato non è una caratteristica incidentale dei crimini commessi dagli individui che fanno parte dei gruppi criminali organizzati. Alcune delle caratteristiche della collaborazione criminale nel contesto della criminalità organizzata riflettono i risultati principali ottenuti negli studi condotti in altre popolazioni criminali, ma emergono alcune peculiarità. Inoltre, il trend aggregato di compartecipazione nei reati dei mafiosi italiani può essere approssimato da cinque traiettorie che raggruppano individui con caratteristiche specifiche. Infine, la collaborazione criminale appare correlata con dei cambiamenti nei successivi comportamenti criminali degli individui: in particolare, è connessa a una più alta probabilità di commettere reati violenti, e di entrare a far parte dell’organizzazione criminale nel breve periodo. Lo studio discute questi risultati alla luce della letteratura sullo sviluppo dei comportamenti criminali per i membri dei gruppi criminali organizzati, e in relazione alla ricerca esistente sulle cause e conseguenze di commettere reati in collaborazione con altri individui. / One of the most documented findings on delinquent behavior is that many crimes are committed in the company of others rather than by solo offenders. Besides studying the characteristics of co-offending, recent works have focused on understanding its evolution over the individual criminal career, and its impact on the offending trajectory. Co-offending is especially relevant within organized criminal groups, where interactions among participating offenders constitute the core functioning of the criminal organization, and crimes committed are often logistically complex. In spite of this, few studies on co-offending in organized crime exist, and none of them investigates the role that co-offending has on the offending pathway of the single individual. This study addresses this gap in research by analyzing data on all the 178,427 crimes committed by 11,138 offenders convicted for mafia association in Italy between 1985 and 2017. The data set includes information on whether each crime was committed with accomplices. The analysis exploits different quantitative methodologies with the aim to describe the characteristics of co-offenses and co-offenders in organized crime; determine whether organized crime offenders have different longitudinal co-offending trajectories; investigate whether committing crimes with others impacts future offending; and understand how co-offending is related to recruitment into organized crime. Results demonstrate that co-offending is not an incidental feature of crimes committed by organized crime offenders. Some of the characteristics of co-offending in organized crime reflect findings from other offending samples, but some peculiarities emerge. Furthermore, the longitudinal co-offending behavior of Italian organized crime offenders is best approximated by five trajectories that group offenders with distinct characteristics. Finally, co-offending is related to changes in the future offending behavior of organized crime offenders: in particular, it is related to higher chances of engaging in violent forms of delinquency and experiencing organized crime recruitment in the short term. These findings are discussed in relation to both research on the developmental course of offending for members of organized criminal groups, and existing knowledge on the causes and consequences of offending with others.