The Relationship Between Co-Offending, Age, and Experience Using a Sample of Adult Burglary Offenders

Purpose This study uses a sample of adult offenders to examine the relationships among age, co-offending, and within-person changes in criminal experience. Methods Burglary co-offending network data in one Pennsylvania county are analyzed to assess (1) the relationship between age and co-offending in a two-level framework, (2) the relationship between age and co-offender selection in a network regression model (MRQAP), and (3) within-person changes in experience and co-offending. Results Age predicts co-offending: younger offenders co-offend most often, while older offenders co-offend least often. Moreover, as offenders gain experience, the number of co-offenders per offense significantly decreases. Within-person analyses indicate that the best model of the transition from co-offending to solo offending includes age, experience, and the interaction of age and experience. Importantly, the effects of experience in reducing co-offending are significantly greater for older than younger offenders. Conclusions The results of the current study indicate that both age and experience must be included in future research on the transition from co-offending to solo-offending. The current study is limited to sentenced burglary offenders in one county. Future research should examine the effect of experience across offense types and across locations.