The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how first-time offenders and habitual criminals, while displaying wide differences in offense frequency, appear to follow a similar pattern in committing crime.,A conceptual approach is adopted in this paper.,It is argued that criminal thinking is the common denominator in both patterns, the difference being that habitual criminals have a higher resting level of proactive and reactive criminal thinking than first-time offenders. With an earlier age of onset, the habitual criminal may be more impulsive and reactive than first-time offenders, which partially explains why most low-rate offenders are not identified until adulthood.,Because actual and perceived deterrents to crime correlate weakly, if at all, it is recommended that perceived environmental events and criminal thinking be the primary targets of prevention and intervention programs.,Environmental stimuli, such as events that produce general strain, increase opportunities for crime, reinforce criminal associations, irritate the individual and interfere with the deterrent effect of perceived certainty, can both augment and interact with criminal thinking to increase the likelihood of a criminal act in both first-time offenders and habitual criminals.,The unique aspect of this paper is that it illustrates that certain features of crime and criminality are found across offending levels, whereas other features are more specific to a particular level.

中文翻译：

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初犯的罪行：与惯犯的罪行相同或不同？

本文旨在说明初犯和惯常犯罪分子在犯案频率上显示出巨大差异的同时，如何遵循相似的犯罪模式。本文采用了一种概念性方法。犯罪思维是这两种模式的共同点，不同之处在于惯常犯罪分子的主动和反应犯罪思维静息水平高于初犯者。由于发病年龄较早，惯常犯罪者可能比初犯更容易冲动和反应，这部分地解释了为什么大多数低犯罪率的犯罪者要到成年后才能被识别。全部，