Criminal Careers and Cognitive Scripts: An Investigation into Criminal Versatility

Authors

Helen Gavin, University of HuddersfieldFollow
David Hockey, University of the West of England

Abstract

"Criminal careers" denotes ways in which offenders develop specialisms and versatility, but studies linking delinquency to social skills deficits have not attempted to explore cognitive, internalised processes by which such "careers" might be chosen. This study investigated criminal minds via script theory: "internal" scripts are used to guide behaviour, "situational" scripts are knowledge of everyday events, and "personal" scripts are a sequence of actions towards a desired goal. This research investigated whether criminal career offenders develop situational scripts for offending and whether such situational scripts express an internalised identity, which manifests as a personal script. Thematic analysis of data derived from "criminal career offenders" supports the notion of criminal situational scripts, with emergent themes considered evidence of personal scripts.

Keywords

Criminal Careers, Criminal Versatility, Cognitive Scripts, and Vignette Analysis

Publication Date

3-1-2010

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2010.1157

Recommended APA Citation

Gavin, H., & Hockey, D. (2010). Criminal Careers and Cognitive Scripts: An Investigation into Criminal Versatility. The Qualitative Report, 15(2), 389-410. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2010.1157