INVESTIGATING THE STABILITY OF CO-OFFENDING AND CO-OFFENDERS AMONG A SAMPLE OF YOUTHFUL OFFENDERS

Scholars have long argued that delinquency is a group phenomenon. Even so, minimal research exists on the nature, structure, and process of co-offending. This investigation focuses on a particular void, namely the stability of 1) co-offending and 2) co-offender selection over time, for which divergent theoretical expectations currently exist that bear on issues central to general and developmental/life-course theories of crime. By relying on individual-level, longitudinal data for a sample of juvenile offenders from Philadelphia, we find that distinct trajectories of co-offending exist over the course of the juvenile criminal career. This inquiry also develops an individualized measure of co-offender stability, which reveals that delinquents generally tend not to “reuse” co-offenders, although frequent offenders show a greater propensity to do so. The discussion considers the theoretical and policy implications of these findings as well as provides some avenues for future research.