Social Class and Criminal Achievement.

In this paper we used a monthly calendar data set to analyze the legitimate and illegitimate earnings of a sample of 204 Canadian federal inmates during the three years prior to their admission. Our main finding is that their social class background has a direct and positive effect on offenders illegal earnings throughout the window period: the more resourceful their background, the higher the odds that offenders will reap substantial net benefits from their involvement in crime. Various attainment models are explored to account for this robust finding. Analyzing criminal achievements emerges as a useful approach that provides new insights on current and past controversies over the myth of the social class and crime relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]