Épisodes d’inactivité et revenus criminels dans une trajectoire de délinquance

L’instabilité de l’activité criminelle dans le temps est déjà bien documentée. On connaît toutefois peu les circonstances qui expliquent ces variations à court terme. Une meilleure connaissance de ces facteurs est souhaitable puisqu’il est possible que les transitions et les changements à court terme précèdent les points tournants des carrières criminelles. Les conditions qui rendent compte d’une interruption temporaire des activités peuvent, par exemple, contribuer à expliquer un désistement définitif. L’étude se fonde sur les trajectoires de 172 délinquants impliqués dans des crimes à but lucratif et analyse les variations mensuelles de leurs revenus criminels ainsi que les épisodes d’inactivité criminelle à l’intérieur d’une période fenêtre de 36 mois. La méthode des calendriers d’histoire de vie combinée aux modèles hiérarchiques permet d’examiner conjointement le rôle de facteurs statiques (les caractéristiques individuelles des sujets) et dynamiques (les circonstances de vie). Les résultats mettent en évidence l’importance des événements qui marquent le style de vie des délinquants et des paramètres qui caractérisent l’engagement criminel dans la compréhension des variations dans les trajectoires à l’étude. Ils soulignent également l’importance de la finalité derrière les activités criminelles pour expliquer la décision des délinquants de cesser temporaire leurs activités illicites

Cultural Explanation and Organizational Crime

Both the number and influence of organizations increased dramatically during the 20th century, which helps explain why the problem of organizational crime has received attention from investigators. Growing interest in organizational and corporate crime has been matched by interest in organizational culture. Variation in organizational culture is employed to explain many aspects of organizational performance, from effectivenessin goal attainment to criminal conduct. There are reasons, however, to be critical of theoretical constructions and empirical investigations of organizational culture. There is both considerable ambiguity about its meaning and an implicit assumption of intra-organizational cultural uniformity. Cultural explanations were developed principally in case studies, empirical analyses are flawed, and supportive post hoc interpretations ofinteresting or enigmatic findings are commonplace. The influence of hierarchy and agency as constraints on organizational culture has received insufficient attention. We interpret the appeal of organizational culture despite the absence of demonstrated predictive value, and we call for additional research on sources of variation in organizational crime

It\u27s a War Out There: Contextualized Narratives of Violent Acts

Purpose: To examine how individuals operating in violent environments draw on cultural and personal narratives of place and self to make sense of routine preparations for violence. Methods: Data are based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 17 individuals involved in street crime and assaultive violence in St. Louis, Missouri. Participants had engaged in violence within the month prior to being interviewed. We used chain referral methods to identify and recruit them. Results: Participants portrayed their neighborhoods as warzones and themselves as people who succeed in these environments due to preparedness for violence and personal capacity for violence typified by street soldiers. They used this situated identity to explain preparations for violence including: readiness to see threats and respond quickly, selecting allies for fights, and arming themselves. Conclusions: The implications of our findings for the study of narrative criminology are discussed including how place and identity narratives facilitate an understanding of self in action that is both after-the-fact sense-making and crime conducive

Group and solo robberies: Do accomplices shape criminal form?

Robbery is frequently committed in groups, yet previous literature gives only passing attention to the role of co-offending. The effects of co-offenders on criminal decisions and the form crime takes when committed by groups are largely unknown. Drawing on individual interviews with convicted robbers, offenders who committed their crime alone are compared with those who co-offended. The study considered whether the presence of accomplices significantly affected perceptions of planning, control, victim selection, and victim cooperation. Findings revealed that group interaction shapes the decision to commit crime. Co-offending increased planning and the sense of control that offenders experienced during the robbery. No evidence was found to indicate that crime with co-offenders changed the way robbery victims were selected.

Adverse Childhood Experiences, Commitment Offense, and Race/Ethnicity: Are the Effects Crime-, Race-, and Ethnicity-Specific?

Adverse childhood experiences are associated with an array of health, psychiatric, and behavioral problems including antisocial behavior. Criminologists have recently utilized adverse childhood experiences as an organizing research framework and shown that adverse childhood experiences are associated with delinquency, violence, and more chronic/severe criminal careers. However, much less is known about adverse childhood experiences vis-à-vis specific forms of crime and whether the effects vary across race and ethnicity. Using a sample of 2520 male confined juvenile delinquents, the current study used epidemiological tables of odds (both unadjusted and adjusted for onset, total adjudications, and total out of home placements) to evaluate the significance of the number of adverse childhood experiences on commitment for homicide, sexual assault, and serious persons/property offending. The effects of adverse childhood experiences vary considerably across racial and ethnic groups and across offense types. Adverse childhood experiences are strongly and positively associated with sexual offending, but negatively associated with homicide and serious person/property offending. Differential effects of adverse childhood experiences were also seen among African Americans, Hispanics, and whites. Suggestions for future research to clarify the mechanisms by which adverse childhood experiences manifest in specific forms of criminal behavior are offered

Adverse Childhood Experiences, Commitment Offense, and Race/Ethnicity: Are the Effects Crime-, Race-, and Ethnicity-Specific?

This article uses epidemiological tables of odds (both unadjusted and adjusted for onset, total adjudications, and total out of home placements) on a sample of 2520 male confined juvenile delinquents, to evaluate the significance of the number of adverse childhood experiences on commitment for homicide, sexual assault, and serious persons/property offending