Event Details

Erin Gibbs Van Brunschot is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Calgary, and joins us for our September Seminar Series, Crime Journeys: High-Risk Offending Across Space and Time .

The study of crime over the life course emphasizes the location of individuals in space and time. In this paper, we examine those identified by the courts as ‘high-risk’ and consider their offending trajectories over a number of years.

High-risk individuals tend to have criminal records reflecting prolific and/or serious offending occurring over both short and long periods of time, as well as occurring in a number of geographic locations. While official criminal records often capture only a portion of criminal activity, the spatial and temporal locations of high-risk offenders’ convictions and charges provide insight into individuals’ lives and associated stability and change over offending histories. We consider if and how spatial and temporal locations of offenses as detailed in official criminal records influence the length, frequency and types of crimes characterizing high-risk offending careers.

Our investigation examines stability and change in offense location (via convictions and charges) over time within individuals’ offending careers. We also consider the spatial and temporal clustering of offenses across individuals in order to identify patterns associated with offending among this selection of offenders. We examine data from the official criminal records associated with individuals identified as high-risk offenders by a municipal police force in a large Canadian city. Future research and policy implications are considered.

Bio:

Erin Gibbs Van Brunschot is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Calgary. Her research interests lie in the study of risk as it applies to the realms of security, policing, offending and victimization. She is co-author of two books with Leslie Kennedy, Risk Balance and Security (2008 Sage) and The Risk in Crime (2009 Rowman and Littlefield). Risk Balance examines the agency perspective on a variety of hazards across contexts while The Risk in Crime examines the concept of risk in crime theory.

Erin’s more recent work focuses on high-risk offenders from a life-course perspective and the management of these offenders from a policing and policy perspective. Related to this is her examination of various applications of technology, such as global positioning system (GPS) monitoring and body-worn cameras (BWCs), as means of reducing the risk of offending and improving security.

Registration:

The event is free to attend, but for catering purposes, please register your attendance by emailing securitylancaster@lancaster.ac.uk