ABSTRACT
The criminal careers of sexual offenders have only recently received increased attention in the research literature (e.g., Blokland & Lussier, 2013; Lussier & Cale, 2013; Lussier, LeBlanc, & Proulx, 2005). The criminal career approach is concerned with the longitudinal sequence of crimes committed by an offender (Blumstein, Farrington, & Moitra, 1985). One of the primary goals of this perspective when first introduced (Blumstein, Cohen, Roth, & Visher, 1986, p. 15) was to inform policy-makers about: (a) the heterogeneity of the criminal population; (b) individual offending patterns and associated individual characteristics; (c) the various dimensions of the criminal career. One key underlying aim of the criminal career approach, therefore, was to determine whether a classification system based on the criminal careers of offenders could be helpful for criminal justice decision-making.
