Early-onset, Chronic Offending, and Life-course Persistence: When the Concepts of Career Criminal and Offender Dangerousness do not Converge

• In Event: Chronic and Serious Offending: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

Abstract

The concepts of career criminal and offender dangerousness stem from two distinct research traditions: (a) criminology and the criminal career approach and (b) forensic psychology and risk prediction of serious and violent criminal recidivism. Research on criminal careers and offending trajectories tend to operate under the assumptions that career criminals are those that illustrate a pattern of chronic offending that starts in childhood and continues well beyond adolescence. In effect, trajectory-based research emphasizes studying offense frequency with little regard for dynamic changes in the types of crimes committed, which is a key feature of forensic psychology and risk prediction research. On the other hand, risk assessment and risk prediction research do not recognize nor integrate longitudinal offending patterns in risk assessment protocols, relying instead on static modeling of past offending. As a step forward, the current study used data on adolescent offenders followed through age 30 to examine the crime-mix of the highest rate offenders per trajectories defined by semi-parametric group-based modeling. Individuals consistently involved in the most serious crimes are not necessarily chronic offenders and vice-versa. The findings highlight serious and important gaps between criminal career and forensic psychology research and the importance of cross-perspective integration.

Authors

• Patrick Lussier, Université Laval

• Evan McCuish, Simon Fraser University

• Martin Bouchard, Simon Fraser University

• Raymond Corrado, Simon Fraser University