Patterns of Criminal Behavior in a Birth Cohort

• NCJ Number: 91286
• Author(s): L M Collins; N Cliff; R A Cudeck; D J McCormick; J L Zatkin
• Date Published: Unknown
• Length: 44 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

As an attempt to develop criminal behavior typologies, this paper describes an exploratory empirical approach to identifying patterns in criminal behavior.

Abstract

Two data-reduction techniques, factor analysis and cluster analysis, are applied to the official arrest records of a Danish birth cohort of 28,879 men. Four factors emerged from the factor analysis: general crime, traffic offenses, white-collar crime, and sex offenses. The cluster analysis revealed general crime and traffic offenses clusters. A substantial number of offenses are shown by both analyses to be independent of any pattern. The results show good split-sample cross-validation and for the most part are robust across the two analytic approaches. A total of 24 references and 1 footnote are given. Tabular data are appended. (Author abstract modified)