Contribution of the Concept of Criminal Career to the Policy of Institutional Punishment

Introduction: The criminal career paradigm, which became accepted in criminology in the mid1980s, significantly improved knowledge about the patterns of criminal activities of individual delinquents and opened up a number of questions about crime control strategies, especially institutional punishment of offenders. Objective: The objective of this paper is to indicate, through a systematic review of literature, the importance of empirical findings on criminal careers for the policy of institutional punishment of offenders. Methods: Search of electronic databases within the service of the Serbian Library Consortium for Coordinated Acquisition (KOBSON) with key words and combinations thereof: criminal career paradigm, policy issues, crime control strategies, incapacitation, incarceration, law. Results: Data on the individual frequency and duration of a criminal career proved to be the most important parameters that need to be taken into account when deciding about the institutional punishment of offenders and the length of the prison sentence. Conclusion: Prison sentences for active offenders while taking into account the assessment of the frequency and duration of their criminal career can maximize the effects of institutional punishment of delinquents.