CRIMINAL ACHIEVEMENT, OFFENDER NETWORKS AND THE BENEFITS OF LOW SELF‐CONTROL

TLDR

The study investigates how low self‑control and nonredundant networking influence criminal earnings among incarcerated offenders engaged in market and predatory crimes. Using a sample of such offenders and controlling for age, noncriminal income, and crime‑cost variables, the authors assess the independent effects of low self‑control and nonredundant networking and extend the analysis to embeddedness and deterrence frameworks. Results show that low self‑control and nonredundant networking each independently predict higher criminal earnings; brokerage‑like networking boosts market offenders, while low self‑control is especially advantageous for predatory offenders and moderates networking effects for market offenders, offering implications for crime theory and network perspectives.

Abstract

This study follows recent research on criminal earnings and examines the impact of underlying traits (low self‐control) and personal organization features (nonredundant networking) on the criminal earnings of a sample of incarcerated offenders previously involved in market and predatory crimes. Controlling for various background factors (age, noncriminal income, lambda and costs of doing crime), both low self‐control and nonredundant networking independently explain why some offenders are more successful than others in achieving higher monetary standards through crime. Although efficient, brokerage‐like networking enhances market offenders' earnings, low self‐control emerges as an asset for predatory offenders: the lower their self‐control, the higher their criminal earnings. For market offenders, however, low self‐control has no direct effect, but it does mitigate the impact of effective networking on criminal earnings. The results emerging from this study have implications for Gottfredson and Hirschi's theory of crime and the advent of a criminal network perspective. Extensions are also made toward the conventional/criminal embeddedness framework and deterrence research.