Kriminalna karijera kao pojam u kriminološkoj literaturi prvi put se spominje 30-ih godina prošlog stoljeća u djelima Clifford R. Shawa (1931, prema Kyvsgaard, 2003), ali kao kvantitativni koncept dolazi tek u djelima Sheldona i Eleonor Glueck (Singer, 1996) koja se smatraju pretečom razvoja koncepta kriminalne karijere. Kriminalna karijera kao koncept u Hrvatskoj koristi se najčešće kao opis nečije kriminalne prošlosti, tj. vrstu i broj počinjenih kaznenih djela. No, ne postoje nikakva istraživanja u Hrvatskoj koja istražuju karakteristike ovog koncepta u njegovoj cijelosti, već se većinom istraživanja temelje na istraživanju pojedinih dijelova koncepta kriminalne karijere. Informacije o ovom pojmu, kao i istraživanja temeljena na tim informacijama, koriste se za kreiranje prevencijske politike širom svijeta. Stoga je cilj ovog rada predstavljanje koncepta kriminalne karijere u cijelosti u Hrvatskoj, kao i njegovog značaja za razvoj i unaprjeđenje kriminološke, sudske i penološke prakse i politike u smislu prevencije kriminaliteta.Criminal career, as a notion from criminological literature, was for the first time mentioned in Clifford R�. Shaw’s works in the nineteen thirties (1931, Kyvsgaard, 2003), however, it was introduced as a q�uantitative concept by Sheldon’s and Eleonor Glueck’s writings (Singer, 1996) which have been considered to be an originator of developing the criminal career concept. In most cases the criminal career is used as a concept in Croatia to describe someone’s criminal past, i.e. a type and number of criminal acts committed. Nevertheless, there is no research in Croatia which would scrutinise characteristics of this concept taken as a whole. F�or the most part, researches have been based on examinations of the separate parts of the criminal career concept. Information on this notion, as well as researches based on such information, have been used to create a preventive policy around the world. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present the concept of criminal career in Croatia taken as a whole as well as its significance for development and advancement of criminological, court and penological practice and policy in the light of crime prevention
