Racial Differences in Co-Offending: Correlations With Concurrent Juvenile Police Contacts and Predictions of Future Adult Police Contacts

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the relationship between co-offending and offense seriousness varied by race and whether similarities in age (juvenile, adult) and race (white, non-white) augmented the frequency and severity of future offending in co-offending males. Analyzing 15,059 incidents of police contact involving male juvenile participants from the Second Philadelphia Birth Cohort (PBC II) and the records of 7,420 male participants from the PBC II, a stronger co-offending–offense seriousness relationship was noted in the juvenile police contacts of non-white participants, whereas similarity between co-offenders led to increased adult police contacts in non-white but not white participants. These results suggest that juvenile co-offending may operate along social learning lines in non-white, if not white, youth.