目前我們對慢性犯罪人族群差異的瞭解十分有限，因為過去研究通常只分析單一族群或是將犯罪人的族群分為黑與白兩種，其他族群的犯罪問題則長期被忽略。本研究企圖檢驗1995 至2000 年之間美國西部在監之慢性犯罪人（本研究定義為具有三十項以上的被捕記錄者）的特性與問題。經過篩選後，總共有500 名犯罪人符合本研究之分析對象。500 名慢性犯罪人的族群分佈非常分散，其中52%為白人，29%為拉丁裔，12%為黑人，6%為印地安裔，近1%為亞裔。本研究分析這些慢性犯罪人的病態犯罪史、危險性、職業發展、犯罪頻率等，發現不同族群之間僅有些微的差異。雖然不同族群的犯罪行為與被害人特性具有明顯的差異，但是族群這個因素在本研究中並無法預測犯罪人是否會成為一個慢性犯罪人。

The understanding of racial and ethnic differences in career criminality is limited because researchers commonly sample only one racial group or limit their analysis to White and Black offenders. Other racial and ethnic groups are simply ignored. The current study examined the prevalence and characteristics of offenders who qualified for habitual offender status (minimum of 30 arrests) upon booking into an urban jail in the western United States from 1995 to 2000. Overall,500 offenders met the arrest criterion. The sample was racially heterogeneous:52% White, 29% Hispanic, 12% Black, 6% Native American, and nearly 1% Asian.Few significant differences existed across racial groups for a variety of offending characteristics, including chronicity, dangerousness, career span, and offending frequency. Although there are dramatic offending and victimization differences across racial and ethnic groups generally, race and ethnicity have little significance in predicting career criminals who operate at the right tail of the offending distribution.