An Exploration of Persistence and Desistance in Offending: Accumulating Disadvantage?
Abstract
Research has consistently noted that a small group of offenders is responsible for a large proportion of all offenses and the bulk of serious and violent crimes. The investigation into factors that influence offending over the life course is noted to be especially important for this group of offenders, often labelled as life-course persistent or high-risk offenders, because of the risk they present to public safety. Yet, much of the research that considers factors related to offending patterns over the life course employs samples comprised of adolescents and young adults. To address this limitation, the current study examines elements of offending trajectories among a population of offenders from a large municipality in Alberta who have committed numerous violent offenses and have criminal careers of up to 55 years in length (N=411). These offenders ranged in age between 26 and 89 years. Quantitative and qualitative analytic strategies are used to first investigate the direct and indirect effects of the accumulation of multiple adversities in childhood on two key dimensions of a criminal career: career length and frequency of offending. A second component of the analysis considers an under-developed part of the process of desistance, intermittency in offending, or “crime-free gaps”. Given the role that bonds to institutions of informal social control are noted to play in exiting from a life of crime, I examine the effect of social bonds in adulthood on the time between offenses. Results indicate that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are directly related to criminal career length and indirectly related to frequency of offending through attachment to employment in adulthood; further, that social bonds to the institutions of work and marriage lengthen the gaps between offenses, thereby reducing the risk of reoffending over time. The qualitative analyses highlighted the importance of considering the variation over time in the presence and absence of bonds for both persistence and intermittency in offending. The theoretical and policy implications of the results are discussed, along with directions for future research in this area.
Description
Keywords
Criminology and Penology
Citation
Humphrey, T. (2016). An Exploration of Persistence and Desistance in Offending: Accumulating Disadvantage? (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/24895