When do they offend together? Comparing co-offending between different types of cyber-offenses and traditional offenses
Marleen Weulen Kranenbarg · Computers in Human Behavior · 2022
Research on cyber-co-offending tends to focus on either the organizational structure of organized cybercrime or social learning processes among individuals. This paper provides a new perspective on co-offending by examining the extent to which individuals co-offend for different types of cybercrime compared to traditional crime. Additionally, differences in the type of co-offender (friends, family, or others) and relationships between IT-knowledge and cyber-co-offending are examined. This paper is based on individual self-report survey data from a judicial sample of Dutch adult cyber-dependent offenders and traditional offenders. It includes information on 466 different crimes (51.50% cybercrime) self-reported by 164 individuals. Results indicate that cybercrime and traditional crime show similar patterns of co-offending. The majority of offenders prefer to commit their crimes alone, but some types of crime are more often committed with co-offenders than other types of crime. For cybercrime results suggest that limitations in an offender's IT-knowledge may be a reason to seek co-offenders with strong IT-skills. • Cybercrime and traditional crime show similar patterns of co-offending. • For all crimes offenders prefer to offend alone, but patterns differ between types. • Co-offending is more common for internet related cybercrime & traditional vandalism. • For all crimes co-offenders are mostly friends. • Differences in IT-knowledge may explain differences in co-offending for cybercrime.