NCJ Number
205848
Journal
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice Volume: 20 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2004 Pages: 201-214
Date Published
May 2004
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study used juvenile-police contact data from the 1945 Philadelphia birth cohort study to examine the relationship between offending frequency and offense switching.
Abstract
The study compared a model which hypothesizes that the probability of switching between two categories of offenses (serious violent and all other offenders) will vary with individual offense frequency and a model which hypothesizes that the probability of offense switching and offending frequency are independent of one another. The dataset from the 1945 Philadelphia birth cohort (Wolfgang et al.) was composed of all males who were born in Philadelphia in 1945 and who resided in the city through age 17. For each of these individuals, all city police contacts through age 17 were recorded. Police contacts for criminal activity were divided into two categories: serious violent crime and contacts for all other offenses. Each individual was characterized by the number of police contacts and whether or not at least one switch between the two categories of offenses occurred. The study found that offenders with a greater frequency of offending did not exhibit a greater tendency toward offense switching. This finding supports the model which indicates that the probability of offense switching and offending frequency are independent of one another. 5 tables and 40 references