Premature Death in Successful and Unsuccessful Criminals.

• In Event: Successful and Unsuccessful Criminal Offenders: Developmental and Biopsychosocial Processes.

Abstract

We know surprisingly little on “successful” criminal offenders – those who commit crime but are not apprehended. In particular, to what extent are they “successful” in ways other than escaping detection? One of the outcomes most valued in all societies throughout the world is staying alive. In this ongoing longitudinal study, we examined premature death in a birth cohort from Mauritius, a tropical island in the Indian Ocean. Self-report crime was assessed at age 39 in 987 participants. Offenders were divided into successful and unsuccessful groups based on whether they had convictions at age 23 or reported apprehension at age 39 and compared to non-criminal controls. Premature death was defined as any death before the age of 56. Groups differed significantly on premature death, χ 2 = 24.0, p = .000006. Controls (5.8%) and successful offenders (6.0%) had death rates that did not differ (p = .87). In contrast, unsuccessful offenders had higher rates of premature mortality than both controls (p = .000005) and successful offenders (p = .004). Findings on unsuccessful offenders are consistent with the broader literature on offending, while findings on successful offenders indicate that they are successful in ways other than escaping detection.

Authors

• Adrian Raine, University of Pennsylvania

• Olivia Choy, Nanyang Technological University

• Jianghong Liu, University of Pennsylvania