NCJ Number
168919
Date Published
1993
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This chapter distinguishes street criminals, who routinely and relentlessly commit muggings, burglaries, and thefts, from most Americans, who periodically break the law in less offensive ways; ways of dealing with habitual street criminals are examined.
Abstract
Although all Americans break some laws regularly, there is a minority of habitual offenders who pose a serious threat to the lives and property of other citizens. Persons whose lives are conditioned by poverty, drugs, family instability, criminal role modeling, and criminogenic neighborhood conditions are at greatest risk for becoming habitual and dangerous offenders. Criminally predictive factors have been identified by the Rand Corporation. They are a previous conviction for the same charge, incarceration for more than 50 percent of the last 2 years, a conviction before age 16, serving time in a State juvenile facility, using drugs in the preceding 2 years, drug use as a juvenile, and employment for less than 50 percent of the preceding 2 years. Among street criminals and among prison populations, there are variations. There is the casual, occasional criminal and the violent predator, who commits the majority of crimes; these offenders compose only 10 percent of the criminal population. The development of a system that distinguishes between these two types of offenders is one of the challenging tasks of the criminal justice system. One suggested approach is to remove the veil of secrecy from juvenile records, so that this vital information can help reveal those most likely to become habitual offenders. Another proposed strategy is to target police resources toward identified repeat offenders and than incarcerate them for long periods of time.