NCJ Number
110286
Date Published
1987
Length
303 pages
Annotation
This comparison of a sample of convicted young criminal offenders with a control group from the general normal population to identify factors in criminality determined that lifestyle aspects distinguished the groups.
Abstract
This 1965-70 study selected 200 20- to 30-year-old German male inmates serving a sentence of at least 6 months as well as a control group of 200 German males from the general population. The core of the study was individual case studies, which consisted of data on medical, psychiatric, and psychological characteristics and subjects' social spheres collected through interviews, records analysis, psychological tests, and medical and psychiatric examinations. The medical, psychiatric, and psychological examinations yielded virtually no relevant distinctions between the groups. Differences were apparent, however, in the social spheres. The offender subjects differed less from the controls in their external circumstances than in their behavior in routine, daily affairs, their self-chosen relationships, and their entire lifestyle. Based on statistical analysis, the study developed syndromes of social behavior having criminological relevance to facilitate the early recognition of a lifestyle tending toward criminality. The analysis then developed a comprehensive view of the offender in the context of his social relationships by creating ideal types from social-sphere criteria. The comparative analysis of individual cases based on the ideal types elaborated in the study is the first practice-oriented criminological method which provides for the differential assessment of the individual offender in the context of his social relationships. The appendix describes the criminological assessment of a case. 84 references and subject index.