Co-offending and the diversification of crime types

Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol. 2012 Aug;56(5):811-29. doi: 10.1177/0306624X11407154. Epub 2011 Apr 24.

Abstract

There is theoretical and empirical support for co-offending being important not only for understanding current offending but also subsequent offending. The fundamental question is--why? In this article, an aggregate analysis is performed that begins to answer this question. Disaggregating solo- and co-offending by single year of age (12-29 years) and crime type in a largely metropolitan data set from British Columbia, Canada, 2002 to 2006, it is shown that the distribution of co-offences is significantly more varied than the distribution of solo offences. This more varied distribution of co-offences favors property crimes during youth but fades as offenders age.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • British Columbia
  • Causality
  • Child
  • Crime / classification
  • Crime / legislation & jurisprudence*
  • Crime / psychology
  • Crime / statistics & numerical data*
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Incidence
  • Juvenile Delinquency / legislation & jurisprudence
  • Juvenile Delinquency / psychology
  • Juvenile Delinquency / statistics & numerical data*
  • Male
  • Prisoners / legislation & jurisprudence*
  • Recurrence
  • Risk Factors
  • Social Facilitation
  • Social Identification
  • Urban Population / statistics & numerical data