British Journal of Criminology Advance Access originally published online on April 24, 2007
British Journal of Criminology 2007 47(5):817-833; doi:10.1093/bjc/azm013
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The British Journal of Criminology 47:817-833 (2007)
© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (ISTD). All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Crime by Proxy
Coercion and Altruism in Adolescent Shoplifting
* Janne Kivivuori, D. Soc. Sc., Research Director, National Research Institute of Legal Policy, Pitkänsillanranta 3 A, POB 444, FI-00531 Helsinki, Finland; janne.kivivuori{at}om.fi.
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Abstract |
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Historical criminology has described the underworld role of Fagin—an adult who forces, seduces or teaches minors to commit crimes for him. In contemporary debates, it is sometimes feared that adolescents cunningly evade criminal law by recruiting younger children to commit offences for them. The present article reports findings from three studies charting the prevalence and correlates of proxy crime among Finnish juvenile offenders. First, a preliminary study is briefly described, pinpointing shoplifting as a typical proxy crime. Second, the prevalence and correlates of proxy shoplifting are described by using a nationally representative community sample (N = 6,279). Of all 15–16-year-old respondents, 7.2 per cent had shoplifted for someone else. Third, a qualitative dataset including convicted property offenders (N = 12) is re-analysed from the point of view of how proxy crime may initiate serious criminal careers. The study suggests that while proxy crime may sometimes play a role at the onset of criminal careers, it is predominantly an inter-adolescent phenomenon, reflecting coercive and altruistic motives.