RT Article
T1 A Social Network Analysis of Chronic Violent Offenders
JF American journal of criminal justice
VO 49
IS 5
SP 700
OP 722
A1 Shelfer, Davis
A2 Zhang, Yan
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1903031729
AB Research indicates that a majority of serious crime events are committed by a small proportion of repeat offenders. Many chronic offenders collaborate with others, co-offending on an irregular basis or as part of an organized gang. Understanding the characteristics of these offenders and their criminality has significant implications for our understanding of chronic violence and the implementation of successful, evidence-based crime prevention efforts. To contribute to this ongoing effort, we apply social network analysis (SNA) to a sample of 2,217 people arrested more than once for a violent crime between 2014 and 2022. We explore co-offending relationships, investigating differences in demographics and crime characteristics between networked and non-networked chronic violent offenders. The results of this exploratory study indicate significant differences in age and crime type by network status. This analysis also indicates that SNA is an effective method for exploring co-offending in a general-purpose crime dataset. Implications for policymakers and future directions for research are presented.
K1 Crime characteristics
K1 Co-offending
K1 Chronic violent offender
K1 Social Network Analysis
DO 10.1007/s12103-024-09768-6