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SPECIALIZATION IN VIOLENCE: EVIDENCE OF A CRIMINAL SUBGROUP *
Author(s) -
BRENNAN PATRICIA,
MEDNICK SARNOFF,
JOHN RICHARD
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
criminology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.467
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1745-9125
pISSN - 0011-1384
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1989.tb01041.x
Subject(s) - danish , criminology , psychology , property crime , property (philosophy) , test (biology) , violent crime , paleontology , philosophy , linguistics , biology , epistemology
This study examines the criminal arrest records of a Danish birth cohort of 28,884 men to test the hypothesis that specialization exists for violent offending. Property offending is included for comparison. Specialization in violence is found to exist for offenders with more than three arrests, and specialization in property offending, for offenders with fewer than four arrests. Knowledge of past violent offending is discussed as a potentially valuable part of the predictive equation of future violence.