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Co-offending

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Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Overview

This entry is a general introduction to the subject of co-offending. In-depth treatments of specific topics in co-offending are provided in the articles by Hochstetler (decision-making), van Mastrigt (attributes of co-offenders), and Weerman (theorizing co-offending).

Co-offending is the commission of a crime by more than one person. It is often called “group crime,” although that term is somewhat misleading, as the vast majority of co-offenses are committed by only two offenders (see Size, below). Co-offending is common and has been observed and studied by criminologists for at least a century, since Breckinridge and Abbot (1912) remarked on its high frequency among delinquent boys appearing in the juvenile court of Cook County, Illinois. (Shaw and McKay 1931) also commented on the prevalence of co-offending among boys appearing in the Cook County juvenile court in 1928. The study of co-offending became established in the 1960s, grew slowly through the rest of the twentieth...

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Recommended Reading and References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Legal Studies, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Peter J. Carrington

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  1. Peter J. Carrington
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Correspondence to Peter J. Carrington .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gerben Bruinsma

  2. VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gerben Bruinsma

  3. Department of Criminology, Law and Society, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    David Weisburd

  4. Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel

    David Weisburd

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Carrington, P.J. (2014). Co-offending. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_108

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_108

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

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