Jeremy Travis, Director June 1996

Adult Patterns of Criminal Behavior

Summary of a Research Study by Julie Horney, D. Wayne Osgood,

and Ineke Haen Marshall, University of Nebraska

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

National Institute of Justice

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

OFF ICE OF JUSTICE PROGRAMS

BJA NI J OJJDP BJS OVC

R e s e a r c h P r e v i e w

National Institute of Justice

Can changes in life circumstances, such as being employed, living with a wife or girlfriend, or modifying alcohol

or drug use, alter the crime patterns of convicted adult

male felons? This question was the focus of a study

conducted for the National Institute of Justice (NIJ),

which sought to understand the relationship between

adult patterns of criminal behavior and relatively shortterm changes in work, family, and other social situations.

It is widely believed that criminal behavior is the result of

a basic propensity that is established early on and

persists throughout life, and that changing life circumstances in adulthood are unlikely to alter this criminal

propensity. Others have theorized that short-term factors

such as getting fired from a job, quarreling with a wife or

girlfriend, or abusing alcohol or drugs may be important

catalysts in adult patterns of criminal behavior. The

researchers conducted indepth interviews with convicted

felons and analyzed month-to-month changes in offending and life circumstances to understand change in adult

criminal behavior. The results strongly demonstrate that

social events during adulthood are related to crime.

Research design

The study was based on interviews conducted with 658

newly convicted male offenders sentenced to the

Nebraska Department of Correctional Services during a

9-month period in 1989–1990. Interviews were completed with 94 percent of those selected to participate. The

sample was 57 percent Caucasian; the average age was

28. Because the sample was of incarcerated offenders,

the study was not representative of the general offender

population. Offenders in this study were likely to have

committed more crimes, committed crimes for which it

was easier to be caught and convicted, and were less

likely to avoid detection than the general offender

population.

A detailed interview was used to collect month-by-month

information on criminal behavior and life circumstances in

the 2-year period preceding the month of arrest. Using an

event calendar constructed for each subject, the respondent was asked to identify those months during which he

had been on probation, on parole, going to school,

working, living with a wife, living with a girlfriend, drinking

heavily, or using illicit drugs other than marijuana. A crime

calendar was created in the same manner to determine

the months during which the respondent committed any

burglaries, personal robberies, business robberies,

assaults, thefts, auto thefts, frauds, forgeries, or drug

deals. Many studies have successfully used similar lifehistory calendars to facilitate recall of past events.

Adult crime and life circumstances

Separate analyses were conducted for each of four

measures of offending: any crime, property crime (burglary, personal robbery, business robbery, theft, auto

theft, forgery, and fraud), assault, and drug crime (dealing). Increases or decreases in specific criminal behaviors varied depending on which life circumstance was

undergoing change. Some life circumstances affected all

types of offending; others affected only one type of crime.

Highlights of the analyses include:

• Illegal drugs. Use of illegal drugs was related to all

four measures of offending. For example, during

months of drug use, the odds of committing a property

crime increased by 54 percent; the odds of committing

an assault increased by over 100 percent. Overall,

illegal drug use increased the odds of committing any

crime sixfold.

• Wives versus girlfriends. Living with a wife was

associated with lower levels of offending, specifically assault; however, living with a girlfriend was
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This Research Preview was adapted from a study by

Julie Horney, professor of criminal justice, University of

Nebraska at Omaha; D. Wayne Osgood, associate

professor of sociology, University of Nebraska at

Lincoln; and Ineke Haen Marshall, professor of criminal

justice, University of Nebraska at Omaha. This study

was supported under NIJ grant 89–IJ–CX–0030. For

further information on this study, see “Criminal Careers

in the Short-Term: Intra-Individual Variability in Crime

and its Relation to Local Life Circumstances,” American

Sociological Review, October 1995.

Points of view in this document do not necessarily represent the official

position of the U.S. Department of Justice.

associated with higher levels of any crime, especially

drug crimes. These findings support results of other

NIJ-sponsored research showing that lack of marital

attachment is a strong predictor of adult criminality.

• School and work. Attending school reduced the

likelihood of committing any crime by 52 percent and

involvement in drug crimes by 61 percent. Surprisingly,

working was only weakly related to adult criminal

behavior in this sample. The simple dichotomy used in

the study (working or not) may be insufficient to capture a respondent’s commitment to a job, which may

be important in reducing criminal behavior.

• Justice supervision. The only variable that was not

related significantly to any measure of crime was

justice supervision in the form of probation or parole.

Justice supervision did lower rates of offending modestly, but it did not produce substantial reductions in

crime among these serious offenders.

Implications

This study demonstrates that the criminal careers of adult

offenders do not necessarily follow a predetermined

course. Short-term life circumstances may sharply

increase or decrease criminal activity among serious

offenders. Inmate prerelease and transition programs

need to focus on helping these offenders avoid life

circumstances that may lead to increased criminal activity

and adopt activities that will reduce their involvement in

crime. Moreover, it is possible that the combined effects

of several crime-inhibiting life circumstances may bring

about substantial long-term change in patterns of criminal

behavior among previously incarcerated felons.