A Professional Criminal: Concurrence Between Experts' Opinion, Public Perception and Researcher's Conceptualization

Six social-psychological and offence related variables, conceptualizing a Professional Criminal in the Pakistani context, have been operationally defined. These are Occupational Life Pattern. Type of Crime, Interpersonal Context, Premeditation, Criminal Record, and Criminal Associations. Twenty-three questions tapping these variables were posed to 151 representatives of law-enforcing agencies and general public to judge the level of concurrence between research's conceptua­lization of a Professional Criminal and that of the respondents. Generally, high level of such a concurrence was found. Implications of the findings and direction for further research have been pointed out.