The Joint Impact of Co-occupants and Co-defendants’ Criminal Behavior on Adolescents’ Criminal Behavior: A Cross-Lagged Analysis

• Published in: Crime and delinquency Vol. 69; no. 10; pp. 1871 - 1893
• Main Authors: Wientjes, Jacqueline A. M., Scholte, Ron H. J., Cillessen, Antonius H. N., H. Delsing, Marc J. M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.09.2023; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Adolescent boys; Adolescents; Behavior; Behavior problems; Criminality; Defendants; Effects; Juvenile delinquency; Offenses; Property offences; Risk factors; Violent adolescents; offending; police records; juvenile delinquency; cross lagged design; criminal careers
• ISSN: 0011-1287; 1552-387X
• DOI: 10.1177/00111287221095412

The present study investigated the joint impact of co-occupants and codefendants criminal behavior on adolescent criminal behavior using official Dutch police records. Co-occupant and co-defendant criminal behavior were used as proxies for family and peer criminal behavior, respectively. Data spanning 8 years (2010–2017) were analyzed from 56,802 adolescents, their co-occupants and co-defendants. Cross-lagged analyses were used to investigate prospective effects of co-occupant and co-defendant delinquency on adolescent delinquency. For males, prospective effects were found of co-defendant on adolescent delinquency violent offences, violent property offences, and nonviolent property offences. For females, prospective effects of co-defendants’ delinquency were found for nonviolent property offences. Our findings underscore that having co-defendants with delinquent behavior is an important risk factor for delinquent activities in adolescence.