Patterns in Criminal Achievement: Wilson and Abrahamse Revisited

Abstract

Even though intense cultural pressures for monetary success and an institutional social structure dominated by the economy are viewed in anomie theory as stimulating criminal motivations and accounting for criminal behavior with an instrumental character, patterns in criminal earnings have not attracted much scholarly and empirical attention. Wilson and Abrahamse's (1992) analysis of Rand's second inmate survey concluded that most inmates interviewed during the survey had overestimated their monthly criminal earnings in an effort to rationalize their poor criminal performances. In this paper, we conduct, using Rand's first survey, a reanalysis of inmates' self‐reported monthly earnings. We conclude that meaningful patterns in criminal achievements easily emerge when allowed to do so. These patterns offer a telling story about differential criminal opportunities. Wilson and Abrahamse's emphasis on temporal inconsistency and response bias (boosting past benefits of crime) misrepresents the facts of that story and misjudges those persons agreeing to tell it. It is concluded that for a “criminal subculture” to have any persuasive or binding effect, its participants must be reasonably assured that their chances of making “crime pay” are not so remote as to become unattainable.

Patterns of criminal achievement in sexual offending: Unravelling the “successful” sex offender

“…In fact, the dichotomy between the thief and the sex offender may be more apparent than real as individuals committing sex offences are criminally versatile -i.e., they steal, rob, burgle, fraud, and deal drugs (e.g., Lussier, Miethe, Olson, & Mitchell, 2006;Simon, 2000;Soothill, Francis, Sanderson, & Ackerley, 2000).We further make the argument that a majority of individuals committing a sex crime approach their sex offence in the same way they would approach any other type of crime. In a sense, we echo Tremblay and Morselli's (2000: 645) observation that criminal achievement "does not depend so much on the kind of crime(s) ones commit but how one goes about doing it".The current study therefore aims to examine whether criminal achievement in sex offending is a viable concept. Until recently (Blokland & Lussier, in press), the examination of the offending behavior of sex offenders had been a circumspect one.…”

“…Performance and efficiency therefore represent the maximization of gains relative to the number of crime(s) perpetrated which is distinct from λ. Highrate offenders may settle for low payoffs and low rewards opportunities, while others may restrict their volume of offending while seizing more profitable and rewarding ones (Tremblay & Morselli, 2000). Illegal income has often been used as a performance measure of criminal achievement (e.g., McCarthy & Hagan, 2001;Nguyen & Bouchard, 2011;Tremblay & Morselli, 2000;Wilson & Abrahamse, 1992).…”

“…The inspection of sex offender's criminal behavior has lead researchers to conclude that they make a series of rational decisions to obtain sexual gratifications through illicit means, such as victim selection, determining crime location, planning victim transport to the crime site, and choosing a method of attack (e.g., Beauregard, Proulx, Rossmo, Leclerc, & Allaire, 2007;Deslauriers-Varin & Beauregard, 2010). The rational and strategic sex offender may use deception, manipulation, alcohol/drugs, coercion, threat and/or physical violence to obtain sexual gratifications (e.g., Koss, Gidycz,&Wisniewski, 1987; Leclerc, 1 Like market offences (e.g., Tremblay & Morselli, 2000), sex crimes provide a variety of benefits to the offender, including psychological benefits such as intimacy, self-esteem, excitement (thrill), power, control, and retribution (Felson, 2002;Groth, 1979;Knight & Prentky, 1990;Marshall, 1989;Baumeister, Catanese, & Wallace, 2002). However, sex crimes can provide sexual gratifications to the offender, something that feminists (e.g., Brownmiller, 1975) …”

“…More specifically, the presence of a criminal network and a mentor can help increase criminal opportunities as well as recognizing the most profitable ones (Nguyen & Bouchard, 2011;Morselli Tremblay & McCarthy, 2006). Mixed evidence has been found regarding the impact of conventional capital (such as educational attainment and involvement in the legitimate labour market) on criminal earnings (e.g., Charest & Tremblay, 2009;McCarthy & Hagan, 2001;Tremblay & Morselli, 2000). …”

“…Since the publication of the "Criminal Careers and Career Criminals" (Blumstein, Cohen, Roth, & Visher, 1986), research on this issue has evolved around three main themes: (a) the modeling of offending, the longitudinal sequence of crimes, crime PATTERNS OF CRIMINAL ACHIEVEMENT IN SEXUAL OFFENDING 4 specialization, and the study of the "chronic offender" (e.g., Farrington & Loeber, 1998); (b) the understanding of criminal persistence by examining the role of formative years, early life stages and the study of the "early onset" offender (e.g., Moffitt, 1993), and; (c) the life events, life transitions, informal controls, and the study of the "desistor" (e.g., Sampson & Laub, 2005). A fourth theme emerged more recently, as research on the sociology of crime and criminal achievement, the role of mentorship, criminal networks, and professionalization has helped garnered information about the "successful criminal" (e.g., Bouchard & Nguyen, 2010;McCarthy & Hagan, 2001;Nguyen & Bouchard, 2011;Tremblay & Morselli, 2000;Morselli & Tremblay, 2004;Tremblay, 2010). The focus of criminal achievement studies is not so much the volume of criminal activity or the individual frequency rate of offending, or lambda (λ), but the examination of whether crime pays, what the payoffs are, and for whom.…”