Crime, they say, doesn't pay. If criminals are mentored, researchers have proven, it pays better.
Carlo Morselli and Pierre Tremblay, of the Université de Montréal, and Bill McCarthy, of the University of California at Davis, who studied the impact of mentoring on criminal success recently published their findings this paper titled “Mentors and Criminal Achievement: Researching Mentorship and its Impact”.
Morselli et al also cite an earlier researcher on mentoring, who quotes one of the subjects of his study as declaring, “Any man who hits the big-time [in crime], somewhere or other along the road, became associated with a big-timer who picked him up and educated him”. Adding, “No one ever crashed the big rackets without education in this line.”
The study however is not anecdotal but adopts a rigourous methodology.
When measured along the key metrics that signify success in this profession; the ones who were mentored made more money and got caught less often. “Those who had a mentor reported almost nine times greater earnings than nonmentored men” write researchers. “As for costs, mentored offenders experienced fewer days of incapacitation during the window period”. Download >>