This presentation discussed the findings and methodology used in the comparative analysis of England and Wales Offenders Index data and the Netherlands Criminal Career Life Course Study (CCLS), examining the crime mix patterns of offending and how they change over the life course.
We have used a latent transition analysis method which jointly estimated the crime mix patterns (different offenders will commit different selections of offences) and the transition probabilities (offenders move from one pattern to another). Our preliminary results showed that each dataset both have versatile and specialist crime mix offending groups but there are also important differences in the make up of these groups, with regard to the type of offences within these groups. These results were discussed in further detail, along with the issues of how best to carry out analyses upon the two datasets. We also explained the additional problems encountered when comparing the two datasets and how we have attempted to overcome them.
Our current analyses have used a binary variable to indicate if an offence has occurred in a specific time period. We have attempted to further extend our knowledge of crime mix patterns by using a variable to look at the counts of offences occurring at each time period. Our Initial findings were presented and compared with our previous results.