Is the Development of Offenders Related to Crime Scene Behaviors for Burglary? Including Situational Influences in Developmental and Life-Course Theories of Crime

• Author: Bryanna Hahn Fox,David P. Farrington
• Published date: 01 December 2016
• Date: 01 December 2016
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X15621982
• Subject Matter: Articles

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2016, Vol. 60(16) 1897 –1927

© The Author(s) 2016

Reprints and permissions:

sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav

DOI: 10.1177/0306624X15621982

ijo.sagepub.com

Article

Is the Development of

Offenders Related to Crime

Scene Behaviors for Burglary?

Including Situational

Influences in Developmental

and Life-Course Theories of

Crime

Bryanna Hahn Fox1 and David P. Farrington2

Abstract

Developmental and life-course (DLC) theories of crime aim to identify the causes and

correlates of offending over the life span, focusing on the within-individual variations that

result in criminal and delinquent behavior. Although there are several notable theories in

the field, few contain both developmental and situational factors related to offending, and

none explain why individuals commit crimes in different ways. This study aims to address

these issues by developing typologies of burglars based on developmental and situational

characteristics to help identify the various criminal career paths of the offenders, and

how these different criminal careers may relate to the commission of offenses. Results of

this study indicate that there are five different criminal career paths among the sampled

burglars and four different styles of committing the same offense, and that burglars with

certain criminal career features tend to commit a specific style of burglary. Through this

research, we aim to extend DLC theories to create a more practical and contextual

explanation of the relationship between criminal careers and the commission of offenses,

and increase the level of within-individual explained variance in criminal behavior.

Keywords

developmental and life-course theory, criminal behavior, situational factors, latent

class analysis

1University of South Florida, Tampa, USA

2University of Cambridge, UK

Corresponding Author:

Bryanna Hahn Fox, Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology, Courtesy Professor, Department of

Mental Health, Law & Policy, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, Tampa, FL 33604,USA.

Email: bhfox@usf.edu

621982IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X15621982International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyFox and Farrington

research-article2016

1898 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 60(16)

The primary goal of developmental and life-course (DLC) criminology is to document

and explain within-individual variations in criminal and deviant behavior from child-

hood through adulthood (Farrington, 2005; Nagin, Farrington, & Moffitt, 1995). To do

this, many DLC theories propose trajectories of offending over the life-course (e.g.,

Lahey & Waldman, 2003; Sampson & Laub, 2003; Thornberry & Krohn, 2005),

whereas some theories suggest specific typologies of offenders (e.g., Le Blanc, 1997;

Moffitt, 1993), and others do not propose types of offenders at all (e.g., Farrington,

2005; Catalano & Hawkins, 1996; Wikström, 2005).

Despite these differences, each of the DLC theories covers some combination of

three main issues: the development of offending and antisocial behavior over the life-

course, risk and protective factors for crime at different ages, and the effect of life

events on the course of criminal development (Farrington, 2003). In short, each theory

aims to identify the causes and correlates of crime from “crib to coffin,” with the main

focus on within-individual variations as strategies of prevention and treatment all

require within-individual change (Farrington, 2005).

To describe the development of individual differences in criminal behavior over the

life-course, DLC theories generally utilize data on individual-level developmental,

psychological, social, biological, environmental, and behavioral risk features such as

age, gender, race, age of criminal onset, offending rate and versatility, criminal career

length, aggression, low self-control, delinquent peer association, socioeconomic sta-

tus, childhood trauma/abuse, autonomic arousal and neurological issues, and more

(Farrington, 1992; Fox, Jennings, & Piquero, 2014). Using this individual-level infor-

mation, criminologists have begun to explore and explain why individuals may or may

not commit crime, and at different rates, over the life-course.

However, one critical element of offending that DLC (and other individual-level)

theories cannot yet explain is the variation in actual offending behaviors, or why cer-

tain offenders commit crimes in certain situations, and in certain specific ways

(Farrington, 2013). As Mokros and Alison (2002) noted, “there must be something

about the person that strongly influences the way in which the offence is carried out”

(p. 40). Unfortunately, this relationship between developmental and situational factors

and how, or in what scenarios, crimes are committed has not been thoroughly explored.

Situational Factors and Crime-Specific Typologies

Theorists who focus on situational features of crime and crime prevention (e.g., Clarke

& Cornish, 1985; Cornish & Clarke, 2003) have argued that, to properly account for

the unique circumstances surrounding a crime, different models are needed for differ-

ent offenses. For instance, the situational factors relating to burglary may be very dif-

ferent from situational factors for violence (Farrington, 2005). Although the motivation

for robbery is typically utilitarian (e.g., monetary gain) or excitement based, whereas

murder is often motivated by revenge, sexual desire, and only occasionally by utilitar-

ian considerations (Trojan & Salfati, 2011). Similarly, co-offending is quite rare among

sex offenders and forgers, although it is much more common among young arsonists

and burglars (van Mastrigt & Farrington, 2009).