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Crime and Destiny: Patterns in Serious Offenders' Mortality Rates

NCJ Number
203430
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Dated: July 2003 Pages: 299-326
Author(s)
Pierre Tremblay; Paul-Philippe Pare
Date Published
July 2003
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the argument that strain, self-control, and differential association theories would all predict higher fatality rates among offenders.
Abstract
Large-scale cohort studies suggest that offenders are more likely to experience premature death. A basic proposition is that higher mortality rates among offenders are not a consequence of the offenses they commit but a reflection of the kinds of persons they are (individuals lacking in self-control). This article sketches two alternative theories: an occupational-hazard model for those relatively successful offenders that willingly accept premature death as the ongoing price of a career in crime; and a strain-hazard model for those offenders that find their lives (and the crimes they commit) intrinsically aversive. Research findings indicate that an occupational-hazard model for offenders can account for a variety of premature homicide patterns left unexplained by the general-hazard model. A strain-hazard model relaxes the shared hazard avoidance assumption and allows that some individuals may be differentially exposed to aversive internal and external life conditions. Excess mortality occurs among persistent offenders because a significant proportion of such offenders can be found to be in a state of inner turmoil and misery. Although the choice itself of premature death is made under severe duress, that choice is taken for a good reason. As more realistic assumptions are introduced, excess mortality among offenders should no longer be explained away as a hazard but be seen as a meaningful destiny for themselves, as well as for those that learn about it at a close or distant range. 1 figure, 2 tables, 10 notes, 47 references

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