The time regimes of active predatory offenders

• In Event: Understanding Crime Choices

Abstract

This study examines the various ways active armed robbers and car jackers give meaning to time and how these meanings influence their crime-related decision-making. Drawing from interviews with 120 active predatory offenders, we find that they create time regimes in response to being temporally marginalized by conventional society. Our study contributes to understanding of offender decision-making and theories thereof. We also add more broadly to the sociology of time.

Authors

• Timothy E. Dickinson, The University of Texas at El Paso

• Volkan Topalli, Georgia State University

• Richard T. Wright, Georgia State University