Delinquent development, employment and income in a sample of dutch organized crime offenders: Shape, content, and correlates of delinquent trajectories from age 12 to 65

Abstract

This chapter describes the shape and content of criminal careers of a large sample of Dutch organized crime offenders and relates these criminal careers to social economic factors such as employment and income. Other chapters in this volume provide systematic reviews of the literature regarding criminal careers of specific - largely understudied - groups, such as criminal careers of organized crime offenders (e.g. Savona et al. 2020). Reviews of the literature demonstrate that the vast majority of studies focuses on juveniles, adolescents, and high-volume crime. Therefore, we do not know whether or not ‘established facts’ about traditional criminal careers (e.g. Farrington, 2003; Blokland and Van der Geest, 2017) also hold for criminal careers in organized crime. Does a long and serious criminal career, for example, require an early onset of offending, as is the case for traditional forms of crime? And is employment an important preventive factor for involvement in crime, as is demonstrated by studies on employment and criminal careers (e.g. Van der Geest, 2011)? Since organized crime is in many ways different from traditional forms of crime (see below), it is important to focus more empirical research effort on this specific - seriously understudied - group of offenders.