Week #2 Reading: Piquero

Question 1

About Piquero Reading:

Answer 1

Introduction to the criminal career paradigm and important issues of contention, and discusses sources of data the paradigm relies upon (both official records and self report surveys) – all of which are extremely well-known and widely used in criminological circles. I am assigning this reading so that you have an introduction to criminal careers research and to these important datasets. All three authors of this article are amongst the most cited and acknowledged criminologists in the business. Blumstein is the “father” of the criminal careers paradigm, i.e., Blumstein & Cohen

Question 2

What is the criminal career paradigm?

Answer 2

A line of research which focuses on relationship between age and crime

Quetelet in 1831 found that crimes peaked in late teens through mid-20’s

Questions of age and crime are central to theory
- Affect policies geared toward incapacitative effects

Question 3

What is a criminal Career?

Answer 3

The longitudinal sequence of crimes committed by an individual offender

Question 4

What are the 2 primary components of the rates of offending within the criminal career approach?

Answer 4

Participation – distinction between those who do and don’t commit crime

Frequency – lambda (λ) – rate of activity of active offenders

Also: duration and seriousness

Question 5

What did Gottfredson and Hirschi believe about the criminal career paradigm?

Answer 5

Believe attempts to identify career criminals and other types of offenders were doomed to failure

Question 6

State 3 sources of knowledge of the criminal career paradigm?

Answer 6

Wolfgang’s Philadelphia Birth Cohort Studies

Farrington’s Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development

Causes and Correlates Studies

Question 7

Explain Wolfgang’s Philadelphia Birth Cohort Studies?

Answer 7

Traced the delinquent careers of 9,945 males who were born in Philly in 1945 between ages 10-17

35% of boys involved with police at least once

very small percentage of offenders (6% of cohort, 18% of delinquent subset) was responsible for 52% of all delinquency in the cohort through age 17

Tendency to specialize in particular offences was small

Age of onset was consistently related to persistent and serious criminality