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This study explores the interplay between victim and perpetrator identities in the construction of successful criminal personas. Through detailed interviews with individuals who transitioned from victims to perpetrators within criminal contexts, the research identifies three critical themes: “Influence, Charisma, and Respect,” “Adaptive Leadership and Strategic Management,” and “Morality and Power-Driven Relativism.” The findings reveal that victim identity significantly contributes to the development of traits essential for criminal success, such as resilience and empathy, which enhance leadership and authority. Furthermore, the strategic manipulation of these identities allows criminals to navigate complex social dynamics and maintain control. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding the duality of victim and perpetrator identities in the broader discourse on criminal self-conception, highlighting the nuanced psychological and relational aspects that underpin successful criminal careers. This research extends existing theories on criminal success by incorporating the dynamics of victim identity, offering a more comprehensive framework for analyzing criminal behavior and identity formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent to which firms can be deterred from offending has received significant attention. Despite this, the evidence for such deterrence remains inconclusive. This article suggests that instead of focusing on the deterrence aimed at companies, we should instead begin with a less contentious observation; that companies are frequently recidivists, and that an emphasis on the factors associated with company recidivism would be a useful starting point for thinking about offending by firms. The article explores this through an investigation of companies pursued by the UK's Environment Agency in England between 2000 and 2016. The logistic regression analysis suggests that being a utilities company, a large enterprise or a new company were all predictive of repeat offending. Conversely, whether a company was fined after its initial offense was not predictive of whether it would re-offend. The implications of these findings for regulatory work and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using long-term personal background and registered criminal career data on 2,714 police-identified members of Dutch Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMCGs), the current study examines Dutch OMCG membership and its association with members' criminal careers. Results show that Dutch OMCG members differ from the average Dutch adult male population (N = 6,845,110) in terms of demographic, socio-economic, and criminal career characteristics. Furthermore, the findings corroborate statements that selection into Dutch OMCG membership has changed in recent years. Finally, the study explored the consequences of joining and desisting an OMCG on crime. The findings cautiously demonstrate that desistance from OMCG membership is associated with a drop in total and violent registered criminal behavior. No effects of joining an OMCG on crime were found, which is attributed to recent changes in OMCGs' membership profile. Implications for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early behavior problems may correlate with adult offending. However, the relationship between early problem behavior and lifetime arrests among known offenders has received little empirical examination. In addition, few studies have explored how the associations between early problem behavior and lifetime arrests may differ among Whites and Nonwhites. It is crucial to understand how early problem behavior is associated with lifetime offending given the growing number of interventions targeting early problem behavior that has the promise to interrupt criminal careers. This study begins to explore the relationship between early problem behavior and lifetime arrests using a sample of men and women who were recently incarcerated in New Jersey. Findings suggest that early problem behavior and the usage of various drugs impact lifetime arrests; however, these factors differ between Whites and Nonwhites. Policy implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, researchers have shown a vested interest in developing advanced information technologies, machine-learning algorithms, and risk-assessment tools to detect and analyze radical content online, with increased attention on identifying violent extremists or measuring digital pathways of violent radicalization. Yet overlooked in this evolving space has been a systematic examination of what constitutes radical posting behaviors in general. This study uses a sentiment analysis-based algorithm that adapts criminal career measures – and is guided by communication research on social influence – to develop and describe three radical posting behaviors (high-intensity, high-frequency, and high-duration) found on a sub-forum of the most conspicuous right-wing extremist forum. The results highlight the multi-dimensional nature of radical right-wing posting behaviors, many of which may inform future risk factor frameworks used by law enforcement and intelligence agencies to identify credible threats online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data collected from a sample of Spanish non-university students (N = 4174) were used to identify unique situational profiles of self-identified repeated online harassment victims and offenders, through a Conjunctive Analysis of Case Configurations (CACC). Repeat victim and offender profiles were constructed using individual-level factors and variables related to the cyber "places" where students go online and their personal information they share while there. Clustering analysis demonstrates that students spent their time online in few situational contexts where online harassment occurs. Dominant situational profiles of students are then provided, along with their associated probabilities for experiencing repeat victimization or committing repeat offending, identifying those at relatively higher and lower risk. Results show that composite profiles associated with victims of repeated online harassment are dissimilar to those associated with offenders of repeated online harassment, suggesting that each form of online harassment occurs in different situational contexts and therefore requires different preventative measures. Our findings are discussed in terms of criminological theory, future online harassment research, cybercrime prevention, and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores individual characteristics linked to an increased risk of persistence in collective violence. A sample of collective violence offenders (n = 438) was identified based on individuals' involvement in a collective violence incident in 2011/2012 or due to them being recorded in a police database of 'known' football hooligans. For the current analyses, persistence was defined as recidivism to collective violence assessed over a 4- to 5-year time span. Criminal career data were obtained from the police (register data). Individual characteristics concerned criminal career measures, behavioral indicators of personality traits and childhood problematic behavior. Due to a lack of other available data sources, behavioral indicator data were largely obtained from police and probation service information. The results of this study indicate that offender characteristics can be linked to persistence in collective violence. Results contrast currently dominant theoretical perspectives on the etiology of collective violence. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decisive action against criminal outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) ranks high on the criminal justice agenda. Nevertheless, in many Western European countries the number of OMCG chapters has increased rapidly. Official OMCG support clubs also have mushroomed. The present study extends prior research from the Netherlands and elsewhere by employing a gang database of 1,617 OMCG members and 473 support club members maintained by the Dutch police and examining members' juvenile and adult criminal careers based on judicial data. While committing an offense was no prerequisite of being included in the database, criminal career data show that the majority of OMCG and support club members is convicted at least once. In addition, we find there is ample variation in both the level and shape of these individual's criminal trajectories. In line with prior research, the majority of OMCG and support club members are found to be adult onset offenders. A considerable share of both samples however, follows criminal trajectories characterized by early onset, frequent and persistent criminal behavior. Building on prior theoretical accounts of OMCG evolution, these findings are interpreted against the background of recent changes in the Dutch outlaw biker landscape. Implications for the Dutch whole-of-government approach are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited attention has been paid to studying intermittency (i.e., gaps in offending) in the criminal career. Data obtained through in-depth interviews with a sample of 16 formerly incarcerated men, were used to explore the impact of personal relationships on intermittency. Life history narratives were analyzed within a social control framework to further our understanding of how personal relationships influence offenders' decisions to take breaks from offending. The research also examined how personal relationships impact decisions to return to offending. The findings suggest that relationships with significant others, children and parents impacted the cessation of and the return to criminal behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a framework for understanding three different strata within the context of illicit enterprise – being low hanging fruit, occupying the "sweet spot," and being the big enchilada. It shows that within each stratum, there is a progression of opportunity that contributes to criminal actors' motivations to proceed with their criminal careers. Each progressing stratum has a significant barrier to entry that, once overcome, signals a state where risk, income potential, and stability change significantly. Nonetheless, illicit entrepreneurs continue to attempt to progress as long as they believe that opportunity is consistent, and the risk involved is acceptable. To that end, many criminal entrepreneurs who are successful in prolonging their criminal careers seek to occupy the "sweet spot," a position characterized by four outcomes: minimizing risk to reward, achieving low visibility, developing a comparative advantage in their illicit industry that, in turn, gives them independence, and economic stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have previously explored how right-wing extremists build a collective identity online by targeting their perceived "threat," but little is known about how this "us" versus "them" dynamic evolves over time. This study uses a sentiment analysis-based algorithm that adapts criminal career measures, as well as semi-parametric group-based modeling, to evaluate how users' anti-Semitic, anti-Black, and anti-LGBTQ posting behaviors develop on a sub-forum of the most conspicuous white supremacy forum. The results highlight the extent to which authors target their key adversaries over time, as well as the applicability of a criminal career approach in measuring radical posting trajectories online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the oft-hidden instances of inter-criminal victimization in illegal drug markets amongst serious criminals in the North of England. Focusing on proto-criminal activity known in regional argot as 'taxing' (drug dealers robbing one another) it draws on ethnographic material and suggests that contrast to the literature on the subject from the USA 'taxing' in England rarely leads to cycles of retaliatory violence. Yet against a more general climate of precariousness in disadvantaged communities in England, 'taxing' as a deviant behavior is a gainful, relatively low-risk activity for a minority of established, professional violent criminals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article briefly introduces the multidisciplinary field of leisure sciences before exploring how leisure theory, particularly the Serious Leisure Perspective, can provide important insights into better understanding some forms of serial homicide. It is well known that many serial homicide offenders kill for the pleasure and enjoyment that such behavior provides them. Such expressive cases can be understood as deviant casual, serious, or project-based leisure experience, which helps account for how particular offenders plan, structure, and experience their crimes. Examples of specific serial homicide cases that appear to function primarily as casual, serious, or project-based leisure are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After giving informed consent and under the promise of remuneration, fifteen persons apprehended for the poaching crime of hunting at night" were interviewed and then polygraphed to verify the truthfulness of their responses. Information was gathered on the amount of night hunting activity, illegal game taken, and the factors surrounding the genesis of the behavior (including age of Onset). Responses indicated a strong support for learning theory as an explanation for this form of poaching. almost all had been socialized at an early age with definitions favorable toward this offense by friends and family members. All but two of the night hunters could be described as chronic night hunting recidivists. Besides offering a descriptive account of the behavior, the research benefits and ethical aspects of polygraphing subjects to obtain criminological data are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The symbiotic relationships among gambling casinos, offshore banks and professional criminals are complex. In numerous contemporary cases, professional criminals from the United States and elsewhere are known to utilize both casinos and financial institutions to launder money and to hide large amounts of illicitly acquired money. Long before recent revelations of such activities became known in the Caribbean and the U. S., developers in the Bahamas had started the process of bringing casinos and banks together to serve underworld interests. This paper traces the developments of that process and shows how American organized crime interests penetrated the Bahamas by using gambling and banking to gain a firm foothold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the development of the LEAA Career Criminal Program and analyzes the ideological consequences of the construction of the legal category ‘career criminal.’ It is argued that the creation of this program illustrates how the criminal justice process contributes to the existence of ideological hegemony and societal reproduction. No one at LEAA, however, deliberately set out to create a program which would serve these ideological functions. The evidence shows that career advancement, professional goals, fortuitous circumstances, and political interests were the factors that lay behind the development of this particular program. Yet the program did have ideological consequences. There was a complex chain of subtle and often unreflected upon inducements, rewards, and incentives Which made it likely that the program would be shaped in accordance with the interests of the dominant class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]