I hadn't noticed anything different about the Criminal career, odd. Somehow, Nick Alto has been getting his ass to work regularly enough to be promoted past Clare Ursine (my active sim) to the point where he is now assigned as her boss. I have also observed him arriving at and leaving the building. I have no idea about my other nhood criminals, since I really havn't been paying a lot of attention to them.
In my games Nick Alto always quits his business career and joins criminal (per his LTW), and becomes Emperor of Evil in about a week. Either he's *really* good at it or he cheats somehow.