Correlates of Specialization and Escalation in the Criminal Career: Final Report

• NCJ Number: 182224
• Author(s): Chester L. Britt
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 59 pages
• Grant Number(s): 97-IJ-CX-0020
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)

Annotation

This study attempts to determine whether adolescent correlates of criminal behavior also serve as correlates of specialization and escalation in the criminal career.

Abstract

Prior research on offense sequences focused on establishing the existence of specialization and escalation and on testing whether observed patterns of offense sequences differ across age and race of offender. This study used a series of multinomial logit models to test for significant behavioral, social and psychological correlates of the likelihood of offender specialization and escalation. Without taking into account offender characteristics, there was evidence of specialization and escalation comparable to that found in prior research. Once offender background characteristics were controlled statistically, overall evidence of specialization and escalation was significantly reduced, indicating that background characteristics were important predictors of types of offending and that background characteristics help to explain patterns of offending across the criminal career. References, tables, figures