Journal article
Do career criminals exist in rural America?
Journal of criminal justice, Vol.33(4), pp.317-325
2005
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2005.04.002
Abstract
The criminal career paradigm had essentially ignored investigating offenders in rural areas. To fill this void, a retrospective, cross-sectional design sampled 331 former adult correctional clients from the case archives in a rural midwestern state. Self-report and official records indicated that rural criminal careers were characterized by relatively few arrests, short-lived criminal justice system involvements, and a paucity of violent crime. Although the sample demonstrated relatively benign criminality overall, the most chronic offenders, top 10 percent of the sample, were plagued by overlapping, contemporaneous problems such as alcoholism, substance abuse, mental health difficulties, early onset of antisocial behavior, low educational attainment, and revolving involvement in the criminal justice system. Like rural communities, which were characterized by exceedingly low crime rates, rural career offenders tended to be relatively harmless criminals especially compared to habitual offenders commonly found in the criminological literature.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Do career criminals exist in rural America?
- Creators
- Mark T. Berg - Iowa State UniversityMatt DeLisi - Iowa State University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of criminal justice, Vol.33(4), pp.317-325
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2005.04.002
- ISSN
- 0047-2352
- eISSN
- 1873-6203
- Publisher
- Elsevier Ltd
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2005
- Academic Unit
- Sociology and Criminology; Center for Social Science Innovation; Injury Prevention Research Center; Public Policy Center (Archive)
- Record Identifier
- 9984282464502771
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