TY - JOUR
T1 - Waxing and Waning
T2 - Periods of Intermittency in Criminal Careers
AU - van Koppen, Vere
AU - Rodermond, Elanie
AU - Blokland, Arjan
PY - 2020/3
Y1 - 2020/3
N2 - Objectives: Focusing on intermittency as a specific criminal career dimension, the present study explores the distribution of intermittency as it occurs across individuals and in the course of the criminal career. Methods: Using conviction data on repeat offenders (N = 3716) from the Criminal Career and Life-Course Study (CCLS), overall patterns of intermittency (measured as conviction-free intervals between subsequent convictions) are analyzed. Given different levels of offending before and after conviction-free periods, we examine the length of the conviction-free interval and the extent to which offending in terms of frequency and specialization changes after a conviction-free period. Results: On average, repeat offenders show relatively short intermittency periods. However, conviction-free intervals tend to increase towards the end of the criminal career regardless of offending frequency. A substantial minority of offenders has a criminal career characterized by more than one spell of frequent offending separated by an extended period of non-offending. As the intermittency period increases, offending specialization across offending periods declines, but not for all types of offenses. Conclusions: This study shows that even after committing several offenses, some offenders experience a prolonged conviction-free interval only to resume offending at a non-trivial rate. Due to the length of their conviction-free interval, these offenders would erroneously have been labeled desisters in many prior studies.
AB - Objectives: Focusing on intermittency as a specific criminal career dimension, the present study explores the distribution of intermittency as it occurs across individuals and in the course of the criminal career. Methods: Using conviction data on repeat offenders (N = 3716) from the Criminal Career and Life-Course Study (CCLS), overall patterns of intermittency (measured as conviction-free intervals between subsequent convictions) are analyzed. Given different levels of offending before and after conviction-free periods, we examine the length of the conviction-free interval and the extent to which offending in terms of frequency and specialization changes after a conviction-free period. Results: On average, repeat offenders show relatively short intermittency periods. However, conviction-free intervals tend to increase towards the end of the criminal career regardless of offending frequency. A substantial minority of offenders has a criminal career characterized by more than one spell of frequent offending separated by an extended period of non-offending. As the intermittency period increases, offending specialization across offending periods declines, but not for all types of offenses. Conclusions: This study shows that even after committing several offenses, some offenders experience a prolonged conviction-free interval only to resume offending at a non-trivial rate. Due to the length of their conviction-free interval, these offenders would erroneously have been labeled desisters in many prior studies.
KW - Crime-free periods
KW - Criminal careers
KW - Intermittency
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85081938933&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85081938933&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s40865-020-00135-7
DO - 10.1007/s40865-020-00135-7
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85081938933
VL - 6
SP - 1
EP - 24
JO - Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology
JF - Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology
SN - 2199-4641
IS - 1
ER -