Age-specific prevalence of different types of offenders

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Figure 8 shows the proportions of the combined cohorts who were apprehended by police at each age, differentiated by the most serious type of offence allegedly committed in the incident. The types of offences are grouped into offences against the person, offences against property, and other offences. "Other" offences include other Criminal Code offences, drug offences, and violations of other federal statutes (see Appendix Table A.1). Consistent with other research, the level of property crime is highest at all ages included in this study. The trajectories for the prevalence of the three types of offenders are all roughly similar in shape to the trajectory for all types of crime combined (Figure 3), but there are variations. The prevalence of property offenders rises most quickly with age, peaks at 15, then begins to decline quite sharply. The prevalence of offenders implicated in crimes against the person peaks at 16 years of age. The prevalence of persons implicated in "other" crimes is particularly low for children below 12 years old, but rises fairly rapidly in the teenage years, overtaking the prevalence of offenders against the person at 15 years, and approaching the prevalence of property offenders among 17 year olds. Unlike the other two types of crime, the prevalence of persons committing "other" crimes is still rising steeply at the end of the period of observation.

In summary, property offenders are more prevalent at all ages from 5 to 17, but the proportion of property offenders decreases during the entire age range: from more than 90% at 5 years old to 50% at 17 (Figure 9). The proportion of offenders who were implicated in offences against the person rises from less than 10% at 5 years old to a peak of 30% at – interestingly – 12 years old, and remains at that level for the remainder of the period of observation. The proportion of "other" offenders is zero at 5 years old, and remains low until the age of 10. It then begins to increase fairly steeply, to 42% at 17, and shows no signs of levelling off. This is in spite of the downward bias in the statistics for "other" offences noted above, which is caused by the "most serious offence in the incident" recording rule.

The increase with age in the relative prevalence of "other" offenders is particularly marked in boys (Figure 10), among whom the prevalence of "other" offenders is the same as that of property offenders (3.9%) by the age of 17. Figure 10 also shows that the prevalence of boys apprehended for person and "other" offences is still rising at 17; whereas the prevalence of those accused of offences against the person reaches its peak at 16 in the combined group (Figure 8). In contrast, the trajectories of prevalence of all three types of female offenders peak before the age of 17 – at 15 for female person and property offenders, and at 16 for "other" offenders - and decrease thereafter: quite sharply in the case of property offenders (Figure 11).