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Offense Specialization among Serious Habitual Juvenile Offenders in a Canadian City during the Early Stages of Criminal Careers

Bruce L. Arnold

Given that social change has been historically associated with differentiation, we investigate this process within unconventional careers. Our study questions whether criminal careers may be the manifestation of time-invariant factors or whether they may vary as a result of social factors and circumstances at different transitional points. Using a sample of official police data (N = 191), this study examines offense specialization among serious habitual juvenile offenders as indicators of behavioral turning points in the onset and desistance of criminal careers. Using Farrington, Snyder, and Finnegan's Forward Specialization Coefficient analysis (1988), our findings suggest a reconsideration of the development of both stability and change, for different offenses at different age-related transitional stages in delinquent careers. Our analysis suggests that delinquency may be organizationally similartoconventional occupational formsofspecialization, differentiation, and social capital.

International Criminal Justice Review, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1-21 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/105756770201200101


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