Career Criminal

A person who commits multiple crimes across his or her life span and, unlike most offenders, does not “age out” of crime. Criminal offending often begins in adolescence and continues into adulthood past the age of 25. Offenders with the highest frequency of law-violating behavior tend to begin their criminal careers at an earlier age than those who commit less serious crime and commit such crime less often. The frequency, seriousness, and prevalence of criminal offending increases with age, and predicators of adult offending are often based on juvenile offense patterns. [Page 63]Definitions vary among researchers, but the number of offenses committed over a length of time is often used as an integral part of the classification. This small group of offenders is responsible for the majority of crime committed. It is estimated that approximately 6% of offenders commit most of the serious crime. The age of onset, individual personality characteristics, family relations, peer groups, school experiences, and so forth are variables correlated with the persistent offender.