The cyclical nature of criminal offending: a qualitative exploration of intermittency among active criminal offenders
Date
2016
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The primary purpose of this dissertation is to provide an exploratory investigation of criminal intermittency among a demographically diverse cohort of active American adult criminal offenders. This cohort has persisted in offending behavior, despite having been incarcerated, in most cases, multiple times throughout their lives. Guided by Carlsson’s (2013a) forms of intermittency framework, a secondary analysis of existing life history narratives revealed that a myriad of structural, cognitive, and situational factors may spur sporadic offending over the life course. Individually, these crime-inducing factors may not be unique to this sample of offenders, but, more importantly, the results illustrate that the contextual commonalities among a particular cohort of offenders may explain how the etiology and epidemiology of intermittency differs when compared to other groups of offenders. Not only does this research advance existing scholarly knowledge of criminal intermittency and other aspects of offending behavior, the results of this dissertation will help guide criminal justice policies and practices related to addressing the problems and needs of persistent adult offenders, especially considering the multitude of collateral consequences that exist for those with extensive criminal records.