IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jcjust/v98y2025ics0047235225000625.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“I knew if I did that, they'd catch me again”: Changes in deterrability over the criminal career

Author

Listed:
  • Vieraitis, Lynne M.
  • DeShay, Rashaan A.

Abstract

Through the lens of deterrence, we use data from in-depth interviews with formerly incarcerated men to explore how their experiences with formal sanctions influenced their assessments of the risks of further offending over the course of their criminal careers. Specifically, we look at how deterrability changed during their lifetimes and influenced the intermittent patterns of offending. We found that they discussed moving among the three phases of deterrability: (1) deterrable but not deterred, (2) not deterrable and not deterred, and (3) deterrable and deterred. For most of the participants, these phases were fluid throughout their criminal careers. We argue that understanding the situational and contextual factors associated with deterrability informs our understanding of intermittency in offending.

Suggested Citation

  • Vieraitis, Lynne M. & DeShay, Rashaan A., 2025. "“I knew if I did that, they'd catch me again”: Changes in deterrability over the criminal career," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:98:y:2025:i:c:s0047235225000625
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102413
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235225000625
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102413?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:98:y:2025:i:c:s0047235225000625. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcrimjus .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.