The network dynamics of co-offending careers

Abstract Despite the long-standing acknowledgement that crime is a group phenomenon, little research treats co-offending as a dynamic network process. This study analyses the individual and network processes responsible for long-lasting criminal relationships using co-offending dyads from eight years of arrest records in Chicago. Results from proportional hazard models suggest that homophily with respect to age, race, gender, geographic proximity, and gang identity lead to sustained partnerships. Victimization increases the probability of continued co-offending, while the victimization of one’s associates dissuade continued collaboration. Supra-dyadic processes (centrality, transitivity) influence the likelihood of continued co-offending. Results are discussed regarding opportunities and turning points.

[1]  Laurence Ralph,et al.  Renegade Dreams: Living through Injury in Gangland Chicago , 2014 .

[2]  Andrew V. Papachristos,et al.  Tragic, but not random: the social contagion of nonfatal gunshot injuries. , 2015, Social science & medicine.

[3]  Martin Bouchard,et al.  A Capture–Recapture Model to Estimate the Size of Criminal Populations and the Risks of Detection in a Marijuana Cultivation Industry , 2007 .

[4]  Alex R. Piquero,et al.  The Impact of Lambda Skewness on Criminology: A Contingent Analysis: Thomas B. Marvell , 2001 .

[5]  Yanick Charette,et al.  La perception du prestige des occupations illicites par des délinquants , 2015 .

[6]  D. Farrington,et al.  Advancing Knowledge About Co-Offending: Results from a Prospective Longitudinal Survey of London Males , 1991 .

[7]  Mark S. Granovetter.  The Strength of Weak Ties , 1973, American Journal of Sociology.

[8]  Vincent J. Webb,et al.  The Validity of Police Gang Intelligence Lists: Examining Differences in Delinquency Between Documented Gang Members and Nondocumented Delinquent Youth , 2000 .

[9]  Daniel S. Nagin,et al.  Trajectories of change in criminal offending: Good marriages and the desistance process. , 1998 .

[10]  Bruce A. Jacobs,et al.  MANAGING RETALIATION: DRUG ROBBERY AND INFORMAL SANCTION THREATS* , 2000 .

[11]  Robert J. Sampson,et al.  TURNING POINTS IN THE LIFE COURSE: WHY CHANGE MATTERS TO THE STUDY OF CRIME* , 1993 .

[12]  Scott H. Decker,et al.  Life in the Gang: Family, Friends, and Violence , 1996 .

[13]  Douglas L. Miller,et al.  A Practitioner’s Guide to Cluster-Robust Inference , 2015, The Journal of Human Resources.

[14]  D. Cressey,et al.  Principles of Criminology. , 1947 .

[15]  Carlo Morselli,et al.  BROKERAGE QUALIFICATIONS IN RINGING OPERATIONS , 2008 .

[16]  J. Coleman,et al.  Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital , 1988, American Journal of Sociology.

[17]  D.,et al.  Regression Models and Life-Tables , 2022 .

[18]  Neal Shover,et al.  The Social Organization of Burglary , 1973 .

[19]  Dana Peterson,et al.  Gang Membership as a Risk Factor for Adolescent Violent Victimization , 2007 .

[20]  E. David,et al.  Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World , 2010 .

[21]  F. Weerman.  Co-Offending as Social Exchange Explaining. Characteristics of Co-Offending , 2003 .

[22]  Mark Warr,et al.  A Reconceptualization of General and Specific Deterrence , 1993 .

[23]  Roel Bosker,et al.  Multilevel analysis : an introduction to basic and advanced multilevel modeling , 1999 .

[24]  Jean Marie McGloin,et al.  Co-offending and Criminal Careers: A Test of Moffitt's Dual Taxonomy , 2007 .

[25]  Alex R. Piquero,et al.  Key Issues in Criminal Career Research: New Analyses of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development , 2007 .

[26]  Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge,et al.  The delinquent child and the home , 1912 .

[27]  Douglas L. Miller,et al.  Robust Inference for Dyadic Data , 2015 .

[28]  A. Cohen,et al.  Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang. , 1955 .

[29]  D. C. Howell.  Statistical Methods for Psychology , 1987 .

[30]  Thomas Grund,et al.  Ethnic Homophily and Triad Closure , 2015 .

[31]  P. Tremblay,et al.  Crime and Destiny: Patterns in Serious Offenders' Mortality Rates , 2003 .

[32]  Maynard L. Erickson,et al.  The Group Context of Delinquent Behavior , 1971 .

[33]  Albert D. Biderman,et al.  On Exploring the "Dark Figure" of Crime , 1967 .

[34]  Robert J. Sampson,et al.  Shared beginnings, divergent lives : delinquent boys to age 70 , 2007 .

[35]  A. Papachristos.  The Coming of a Networked Criminology , 2017 .

[36]  Jean-Louis Siroux,et al.  Sauvadet T., Le capital guerrier, Concurrence et solidarité entre jeunes de cité, Paris, Armand Colin, 2006 , 2008 .

[37]  Christopher Uggen,et al.  Work as a Turning Point in the Life Course of Criminals: A Duration Model of Age, Employment, and Recidivism , 2000, American Sociological Review.

[38]  Ronald L. Akers,et al.  Social learning and social structure : a general theory of crime and deviance , 1999 .

[39]  Christopher J. Sullivan,et al.  Rethinking the "norm" of offender generality: Investigating specialization in the short-term , 2006 .

[40]  Steven B. Andrews,et al.  Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition , 1995, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[41]  Edward R. Kleemans,et al.  Criminal Careers in Organized Crime and Social Opportunity Structure , 2008 .

[42]  Christopher J. Sullivan,et al.  INVESTIGATING THE STABILITY OF CO-OFFENDING AND CO-OFFENDERS AMONG A SAMPLE OF YOUTHFUL OFFENDERS* , 2008 .

[43]  Robert J. Sampson,et al.  Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points Through Life. , 1994 .

[44]  F. D. Singly,et al.  Le capital guerrier : concurrence et solidarité entre jeunes de cité , 2007 .

[45]  Carlo Morselli,et al.  Contacts, Opportunities, and Criminal Enterprise , 2005 .

[46]  A. Piquero,et al.  On the Relationship between Co-Offending Network Redundancy and Offending Versatility , 2010 .

[47]  D. Walsh,et al.  Heavy Business , 1986 .

[48]  Howard E. Aldrich,et al.  Entrepreneurship Through Social Networks , 1986 .

[49]  R. Burt,et al.  Kinds of Third-Party Effects on Trust , 1995 .

[50]  Lawrence E. Cohen,et al.  Uncertainty, Cooperation, and Crime: Understanding the Decision to Co-offend , 1998 .

[51]  Elise Boulding.  Book Review:The Big Two: Soviet American Perceptions of Foreign Policy. Anatol Rapoport , 1973 .

[52]  A. Blumstein.  Criminal careers and "career criminals" , 1986 .

[53]  Alfred Blumstein,et al.  Specialization and seriousness during adult criminal careers , 1988, Journal of Quantitative Criminology.

[54]  Carlo Morselli,et al.  Friends with(out) benefits: co-offending and re-arrest , 2013 .

[55]  and Policy.  The Importance of Studying Co-offending Networks for Criminological Theory , 2013 .

[56]  Carlo Morselli,et al.  Structuring Mr. Nice: Entrepreneurial opportunities and brokerage positioning in the cannabis trade , 2001 .

[57]  Michael J. Hindelang,et al.  THE SOCIAL VERSUS SOLITARY NATURE OF DELINQUENT INVOLVEMENTS , 1971 .

[58]  P Janssen.  With a little help from their friends. , 1976, Change.

[59]  Mark Warr.  ORGANIZATION AND INSTIGATION IN DELINQUENT GROUPS , 1996 .

[60]  Carlo Morselli,et al.  Inside Criminal Networks , 2008 .

[61]  Joan McCord,et al.  A longitudinal examination of the relation between co-offending with violent accomplices and violent crime , 2002 .

[62]  M. McPherson,et al.  Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks , 2001 .

[63]  D. Cornish.  THE PROCEDURAL ANALYSIS OF OFFENDING AND ITS RELEVANCE FOR SITUATIONAL PREVENTION , 1994 .

[64]  Mark Warr.  Companions in Crime: The Social Aspects of Criminal Conduct , 2002 .

[65]  Lloyd E. Ohlin,et al.  Delinquency and Opportunity: A Theory of Delinquent Gangs. , 1961 .

[66]  B. Tabachnick,et al.  Using Multivariate Statistics , 1983 .

[67]  Carlo Morselli,et al.  Crime and Networks , 2013 .

[68]  Jeffrey M. Wooldridge,et al.  Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach , 1999 .

[69]  A. Cameron,et al.  Microeconometrics: Methods and Applications , 2005 .

[70]  Terrance J. Taylor,et al.  “I got your back”: an examination of the protective function of gang membership in adolescence , 2009 .

[71]  Carlo Morselli,et al.  CRIMINAL ACHIEVEMENT, OFFENDER NETWORKS AND THE BENEFITS OF LOW SELF‐CONTROL , 2004 .

[72]  Yanick Charette,et al.  A capture-recapture model to estimate the effects of extra-legal disparities on crime funnel selectivity and punishment avoidance , 2016 .

[73]  Jooyoung Lee,et al.  Wounded Life after the Shooting , 2012 .

[74]  Noah Mark,et al.  Culture and Competition: Homophily and distancing Explanations for Cultural Niches , 2003, American Sociological Review.

[75]  Richard Wright,et al.  Street justice : retaliation in the criminal underworld , 2016 .