Co-offending patterns associated with different crime types – A social network perspective

• In Event: Organized crime: involvement, determinants, and impact

Abstract

Co-offending is seen as a problematic phenomenon as it is associated with increased recidivism and an aggravation of the crimes committed. Several studies show that co-offending patterns differ per crime type and that the characteristics of a crime, at least partially, explain whether it is typically committed by a solo offender or by a group. Organized crime is by definition dependent on co-offending. Hence, it is an interesting crime type to compare to crimes in which co-offending is mostly optional, such as property crimes and violent crimes. Surprisingly, few studies on co-offending patterns specifically focus on organized crime, let alone compare co-offending patterns associated with organized crime to co-offending patterns associated with other types of crimes. Moreover, most studies on co-offending patterns only analyze co-offending prevalence and offender characteristics, such as the number of co-offender incidents per crime type, the mean number of co-offenders per incident, and the gender, age, and criminal history of the offender. The current study aims to contribute to the body of literature on co-offending patterns by combining co-offending prevalence measurements with social network analyses. We do so, by analyzing police registration data regarding possible differences in the co-offender patterns associated with property crimes, violent crimes, and organized crimes, on an incident, individual, co-offending community, and co-offending network level. These police registrations cover a period of 5 years and served as the basis for an alleged co-offending network of 1009 individuals, of which approximately 30 percent are females and 70 percent are males.

Authors

• Ida Adamse, NSCR

• Arjan Blokland, NSCR

• Veroni Eichelsheim, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement