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Careers in crime
New book by sociology's Matt DeLisi looks at society's chronic offenders.
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"What are you going to be when you grow up?"
That age-old question is typically met by young boys with responses like
a football player, fireman, policeman or whatever occupation their father
holds.
It's doubtful that many youngsters say their desire is to become a career
criminal.
However more than a century of scientific research indicates that's what
many individuals, particularly males, become.
"In any society, five percent of the population will commit over
half of the crimes," says Matt DeLisi, assistant professor of sociology.
"That means that most criminals are repeat offenders."
In his first book, Career Criminals in Society, DeLisi examines
the small but dangerous group of repeat offenders who are most damaging
to society. The book was recently published by SAGE Publications and explores
various crime prevention strategies to neutralize criminal careers.
DeLisi first got interested in habitual criminal offenders working the
third shift in a county jail while pursuing his Ph.D. at the University
of Colorado, Boulder. As a judicial officer, DeLisi would gather information
and interview individuals who had been arrested to help set bond.
"There was this file drawer of 'frequent offenders,'" he recalled.
"Many of these people had files so thick that we didn't even bother
to interview them because we knew the judge wouldn't allow bond."
DeLisi has examined 500 chronic offenders from the Boulder jail for Career
Criminals in Society. He provides chapter-opening vignettes developed
from real criminal cases in the book.
The typical career criminal is an unemployed, middle-aged (40-50) male
with alcohol and/or drug problems. Many are homeless with no family ties.
Most will have at least 30 arrests, with some having as many as 200 arrests
in their lifetimes. Most crimes are either alcohol or drug violations,
shoplifting charges or vagrancy.
The criminals had been arrested in an average of four states, with one
individual having an arrest record that included 25 states.
"Some of these individuals have had 30-40 arrests while they were
adolescents," DeLisi said. "They have been in and out of the
prison system since they were children."
Career criminals are typically non-violent although they account for the
preponderance of the nation's violent crimes. Career criminals are versatile
and tend to unpredictably commit a mix of violent, property, drub and
other crimes. They also cut across racial, economic and cultural backgrounds.
"These are multiple problem people," DeLisi said. "They
tend to fail in all aspects of life."
One individual that DeLisi examined from the Boulder jail had been arrested
161 times, 64 on theft charges, which were primarily shoplifting.
In Career Criminals in Society, DeLisi argues that if societies
devoted considerable resources toward preventing and neutralizing career
criminals, there would be dramatic reductions in crime, the fear of crime,
and the assorted collateral consequences of crime.
"Career criminals can be combated only with a combination of prevention
efforts and retributive criminal justice system policies," he says.
"If an individual is 55 and still committing crimes we should do
something about them."
By the same token, DeLisi says studies have proven that programs for adolescent
offenders will pay dividends later on.
"With very little investment up front we can reduce the number of
repeat offenders," he said.
DeLisi knows his views are controversial. During the book's peer review
process, criminologists loved the book, while sociologists tended to object
to some of its content.
"There are some that deny there is such a thing as a career criminal,"
DeLisi said. "That's simply wrong. If we don't acknowledge that,
they will continue to wreak havoc on our society.
"I don't think most people have any idea of how bad some of these
people are unless you worked the third shift in a county jail."
Around LAS
March 28 to April 10, 2005
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