NCJ Number
214761
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 46 Issue: 2 Dated: March 2006 Pages: 193-211
Date Published
March 2006
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This study explored the arrest avoidance strategies that car thieves employed to avoid police detection while driving stolen vehicles.
Abstract
Results of semi-structured interviews with 54 car thieves indicated that these thieves actively engaged in a number of strategies or “skills of evasion” to make their crimes less detectable. The main theme connecting these strategies was the assumption that police could be eluded if car thieves presented an image of a normal driver. Specific arrest avoidance strategies included concealing damage, manipulating appearances, restrained driving, and maintaining composure. The findings are largely consistent with recent research on restrictive deterrence with one main exception. Previous research has concluded that strategies employed to avoid police detection generally worked to decrease the number of criminal offenses while the findings from this study suggested that arrest avoidance strategies might play an important role in crime persistence. Two main reasons are that arrest avoidance strategies result in greater criminal success and that the strategies make the commission of crime more palatable to offenders. Participants were 2 groups of car thieves: (1) 42 car thieves on community supervision in a metropolitan area of Tennessee and (2) 12 car thieves in prisons in Louisiana. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with both groups that focused on their backgrounds, criminal histories, drug use, their criminal decisionmaking processes, and their use of arrest avoidance strategies. Future research should focus on understanding the risks of crime throughout the commission of the criminal event and on the techniques offenders use to manage these risks. References