Offending Activity

PROPOSAL ABSTRACT

Research Goals and Objectives:

Two key dimensions of the criminal career paradigm include specialization and escalation. Although these topics have generated theoretical and empirical debate in the criminal careers area, this line of research has not been integrated into the study of domestic violence, and remains limited in several ways. In this project, we build upon these limitations and explore, using both official records and victim interviews, issues related to specialization and escalation using data from the Spouse Abuse Replication Program (SARP). Specifically, we examine (1) the extent to which offenders participating in the SARP exhibit a specialized proclivity to violence; and (2) tendencies of these individuals to escalate or de-escalate the severity of their attacks against the same victim.

Results

First, regarding the extent to which criminal domestic violence offenders specialize in violent offending, our analysis reveals that the majority of domestic violence offenders with prior official criminal records have been involved in non-violent forms of