First-Time Offender in Criminology

Having studied criminology textbooks and research publications regarding the personality of the criminal, its classification and typology, the author draws attention to the fact that they discuss the opposition between, on the one hand, repeat crimes and the personality of a repeat offender and, on the other hand, all other crimes and the personality of an offender «in general», rather than fist-time crimes and first-time offenders, which would be more logical. The author concludes that it is necessary not only to counteract repeat crimes but, primarily, to prevent them though a more effective reaction to first-time crime and its subject — a first-time offender. An overview of textbooks and research publications in criminology shows that the topic of first-time offenders, either as an independent object, or in comparison with repeat crimes, is never even outlined. As for special research which could discuss this problem, primarily, research devoted to the personality of the criminal, to repeat offenses, it does not contain any definite information regarding the differences between secondary (repeat) and first-time crimes, or the necessity and expediency of a selective reaction to the first-time offences. Publications devoted to repeat offences, the personality of the repeat offender, limit their object to analyzing the behavioral pattern of persons who already committed a crime in the past and then commit a new crime. Persons without a record of previous convictions who commit a crime, as a rule, stay out of the scope of such research and of criminology in general. The author puts forward an idea that the personality of a first-time offender is not studied in criminology because there seems to be no practical benefit from such work, unlike the benefits of studying the personality of a repeat offender. It is stated that, traditionally, the threat of new crimes from repeat offenders has caused greater concerns than the threat from first-time offenders. The author claims that the solution of the latter problem predetermines the solution of the former as it acts, at least, as one of the most efficient tools that could have an impact on it.