![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
The unique scholarship of Carlo Morselli fuelled interest in criminal networks, entrepreneurship, and achievement. In this paper, we summarise Morselli’s contributions to the scholarship on criminal achievement, with special attention to the subjective aspects of such achievement. We show how Morselli’s work ignited interest in the novel concept of criminal self-efficacy and we offer a number of suggestions for continuing and extending this important line of work. In particular, we (1) discuss reasons why the subjective aspects of criminal achievement have been largely neglected by others, but why they are important to explore; (2) review the possible sources of criminal self-efficacy; (3) discuss gender differences in this area; and (4) highlight the overall balance between criminal and conventional self-efficacy as an important consideration. Further research in this area may help us better understand the attraction to crime, the limited effectiveness of punishment, and reasons for the persistence of criminal careers.
Acknowledgments
We are indebted to Carlo Morselli, who was generous with his time and support and who personally encouraged our own research on criminal achievement and criminal self-efficacy. We are also indepted to two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and helpful suggestions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Wilson and Abrahamse, “Does Crime Pay?” 359–377.
2. Richers and Cicchetti, “Mark Twain Meets DSM-III-R,” 5–29.
3. Walters, The Criminal Lifestyle.
4. Gottfredson and Hirschi, A General Theory of Crime.
5. Ibid., 21.
6. For an overview, see Brezina and Agnew, Juvenile Delinquency.
7. Laub and Sampson, Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives.
8. Tremblay and Morselli, “Patterns in Criminal Achievement,” 633-657.
9. Morselli, “Structuring Mr. Nice,” 203-244.
10. Gundur, “Finding the Sweet Spot,” 387-389; and Salinas, “The Unusual Suspects,” 226-242.
11. Salinas, “The Unusual Suspects,” 226-242.
12. Morselli, “Structuring Mr. Nice”; and Morselli, Tremblay, and McCarthy, “Mentors and Criminal Achievement,” 17-43.
13. Duck, No Way Out; Duck, “Becoming a Drug Dealer,” 1069-1085; Fader, “Criminal Family Networks,” 1325-1340; Gundur, “Finding the Sweet Spot,” 378-397; Nguyen, “On the Conceptualization of Criminal Capital,” 182-216.
14. Gundur, “Finding the Sweet Spot,” 389.
15. See note 8 above.
16. Campbell, “Female Drug Smugglers,” 233-267; Duck, No Way Out; Cobbina and Oselin, “Not Only for the Money,” 310-332; Morselli, Tremblay, and McCarthy, “Mentors and Criminal Achievement.”
17. Brezina and Topalli, “Criminal Self-Efficacy,” 1042-1062; Shover, Ageing Criminals.
18. Duck, “Becoming a Drug Dealer,” 1069-1085.
19. Duck, No Way Out.
20. Nguyen, Loughran, Paternoster, Fagan, and Piquero, “Institutional Placement and Illegal Earnings,” 207–235.
21. Ouellet, Bouchard, and Malm. “Social Opportunity Structures and the Escalation of Drug Market Offending,” 743-764.
22. For example, see Ouellet, Bouchard, and Charette, “One Gang Dies, another Gains?” 5 – 33; Gundur, “Settings Matter,” 329-360.
23. Tremblay and Morselli, “Patterns in Criminal Achievement”; Laferrière and Morselli, “Criminal Achievement and Self-efficacy,” 856-889.
24. Bandura, Self-efficacy.
25. Ibid., 3.
26. Ibid., 72-75.
27. For a review, see Brezina and Topalli, “Criminal Self-Efficacy.”
28. Shover, Ageing Criminals, 106; see also Roberts, My Soul Said to Me.
29. Geiger and Fischer, “Naming Oneself Criminal,” 202.
30. Cullen, “Choosing Our Criminological Future,” 373-379.
31. See note 1 above.
32. See note 8 above.
33. See note 3 above.
34. See note 24 above.
35. See note 8 above.
36. Wilson and Abrahamse, “Does Crime Pay?”; Tremblay and Morselli, “Patterns in Criminal Achievement.”
37. Brezina and Topalli, “Criminal Self-Efficacy.”
38. Ibid., 1056.
39. See Wilson and Abrahamse, “Does Crime Pay?”.
40. See note 37 above.
41. Ibid., 1056. These qualitative observations suggest that, with age and experience, some offenders may become more selective and therefore more efficient at crime (see also Tremblay and Morselli, “Patterns in Criminal Achievement”).
42. Bandura, Self-efficacy, 82.
43. Loughran, Paternoster, and Piquero, “Individual Difference and Deterrence,” 211–236.
44. Brezina and Topalli, “Criminal Self-Efficacy”; Laferrière and Morselli, “Criminal Achievement and Self-efficacy.”
45. Deitzer, Leban, Copes, and Wilcox, “Criminal Self-Efficacy and Perceptions of Risk and Reward Among Women Methamphetamine Manufacturers.”
46. See note 37 above.
47. Ibid.
48. Laferrière and Morselli, “Criminal Achievement and Self-efficacy.”
49. Massoglia and Uggen, “Settling Down and Aging Out,” 543-582.
50. See note 45 above.
51. Lussier, Bouchard, and Beauregard, “Patterns of Criminal Achievement in Sexual Offending.” 433-444.
52. Brezina and Topalli, “Criminal Self-Efficacy”; Laferrière and Morselli, “Criminal Achievement and Self-efficacy”; Tremblay and Morselli, “Patterns in Criminal Achievement.”
53. McCarthy, “Not Just ‘for the Thrill of It’,” 519-538; Miller, “Reconciling Feminism and Rational Choice Theory,” 219-240.
54. McCarthy, “Not Just ‘for the Thrill of It’,” 525.
55. Miller, “Reconciling Feminism and Rational Choice Theory.”
56. Chesney-Lind and Pasko, eds., The Female Offender.
57. See note 55 above.
58. For examples, see Campbell, “Female Drug Smugglers”; Cobbina and Oselin, “Not Only for the Money”; Davies, “Is Economic Crime a Man’s Game?”; and Fleetwood, Drug Mules.
59. Davies, “Is Economic Crime a Man’s Game?”.
60. Campbell, “Female Drug Smugglers.”
61. Ibid., 246.
62. See Campbell, “Female Drug Smugglers”; Cobbina and Oselin, “Not Only for the Money”; Selmini, “Women in Organized Crime,” 339-383.
63. Campbell, “Female Drug Smugglers,” 258.
64. Selmini, “Women in Organized Crime,” 339-383.
65. Smith, Syndicate Women.
66. Miller, One of the Guys, 131; see also Miller, “The Strengths and Limits of ‘Doing Gender’ for Understanding Street Crime,” 433–460.
67. Deuchar et al.,”Deficit or Credit?”.
68. Ibid., 1109.
69. Ibid., 1103.
70. For examples, see Campbell, “Female Drug Smugglers”; and Fleetwood, Drug Mules.
71. See note 63 above.
72. Fleetwood, Drug Mules.
73. See note 24 above.
74. See note 45 above.
75. See note 37 above.
76. Brown, St. Amand, and Zamble, “The Dynamic Prediction of Criminal Recidivism,” 25-45.
77. See Herrschaft et al., “Gender Differences in the Transformation Narrative,” 463-482.
78. See note 28 above.
79. Roberts, My Soul Said to Me, 66.
80. See note 48 above.
81. For an overview of effective prevention programs in these areas, see Agnew and Brezina, Juvenile Delinquency.
82. Ibid.
83. Nguyen, “On the Conceptualization of Criminal Capital,” 182-216.
84. See note 45 above.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Timothy Brezina
Timothy Brezina is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Georgia State University. He has conducted extensive research on the correlates and consequences of youth violence and delinquency, with a special focus on the role of agency in the desistance process, on the sources of youth risk and resilience, and the testing of criminological theories. He is co-author, with Robert Agnew, of Juvenile Delinquency: Causes and Control, 6th edition (Oxford University Press)
MariTere Molinet
MariTere Molinet is a doctoral candidate at Georgia State University whose interests focus on crime from a social psychology perspective. Her research includes crime and gender, white-collar crime, and technology, social interactions and crime. She is a recipient of the Second Century Initiative Fellowship for Evidence Based Policy. She has co-authored several papers with Dr. William J. Sabol in the topics of foster care and police response to harm. Before pursuing an academic career, MariTere was an international media executive for over 15 years.