Multiple Offending in Germany: Lessons on the Influence of Police Recording Rules Upon Official Crime Rates of Different Age Groups (From Developments in Crime and Crime Control Research: German Studies on Victims, Offenders, and the Public, 170-187, Klaus Sessar and Hans-Jurgen Kerner, eds.)

• NCJ Number: 133340
• Author(s): H-J Kerner
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 18 pages
• Sale Source: Springer-Verlag
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: Germany (Unified)

Annotation

A selection of data is presented from a test of the German Police Crime Statistics (PCS) recording system which was thoroughly changed after 1982 in regard to "persons suspected of a crime" with dramatic results.

Abstract

In regard to multiple offending in general and to the criminal career paradigm in particular, the data show clearly that repeat offenders easily can be found among all age groups and by analyzing only a 1-year period. Intensive offenders or "chronics" commit a large part of all offenses registered officially for most age groups, but membership in this offender group does not necessarily imply serious offending in terms of the severity of the multiple criminal events, or will it end inevitably in an extended criminal career. The old German PCS counting system grossly overestimated the real amount of juvenile delinquency and crime in terms of the youth population engaging every year in officially registered delinquent and criminal behavior. 2 tables and 19 references