Research Question 4: What offenses are reported in juvenile multiple offender incidents in which the most serious offense is a Part I Index property crime?

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The following code creates the variables necessary to answer the research question and creates a table. When using this code, be sure to insert the path and the file name of the data file to be used, as well as the name of the file to be saved. If you need any assistance working with the syntax provided, please contact us. NOTE: If you ran the syntax for Research Question 1, 2, or 3 and saved the data file, you need only run the syntax to match the segments and produce the output; the variables have already been created.

The assumptions for the following example of code are:

The data file was created as described in "Reading A Multi-Level Data File Into SPSS";
An aggregated flat file was created as described in "Creating An Incident-Level Aggregated Flat File"; and
The individual data segments were saved in separate files as described in "Preparing Individual File Segments For Detailed Analysis."

Defining the Variables

This first section of programming creates new variables to answer the research question. The new variables are needed for identifying the offender composition (single, multiple) of incidents, the age categories (adult, juvenile) of the offenders, and the types of offenses committed.

GET FILE = 'Directory:\Path\Incident-level flat file.sav'.

COMPUTE type_inc = 0.
IF (off_cnt = 1)type_inc = 1.
IF (off_cnt gt 1)type_inc = 2.

VALUE LABELS type_inc
1 'Single Offender'
2 'Multiple Offenders'.

MISSING VALUES type_inc (0).

This COMPUTE creates a grouping variable called INDEX from the most serious offense in the incident variable. The most serious offense in the incident variable was derived from the victim offense(s) in the "Creating" step when the AGGREGATE command was executed. In the RECODE, INDEX is assigned a numeric value from 1 to 7, corresponding to the FBI Part I Index offenses. In this example, arson is not included as a Part I Index offense. Non-index offenses are set to value '8'. The second RECODE groups the recoded index values into the variable MSOFFGP. The most serious offense group values are person, property, and other. Value labels are also assigned.

COMPUTE index = msioff.
RECODE index (90 = 1)(110 = 2)(120 = 3)
(130 = 4)(140 = 5)(160 thru 167 = 6)(150 = 7)
(else = 8).
VALUE LABELS index 1 'Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter'
2 'Forcible Rape' 3 'Robbery' 4 'Aggravated Assault' 5 'Burglary'
6 'Larceny' 7 'Motor Vehicle Theft' 8 'All Other Offenses'.
RECODE index (1 thru 4 = 1)(5 thru 7 =2)(else = 3)into msoffgp.
VALUE LABELS msoffgp 1 'Person Offenses' 2 'Property Offenses'
3 'Other Offenses'.

These IF statements create a new variable to capture whether the incident was an adult-only incident or one that included at least one juvenile. Whereas an adult incident is composed only of adults, a juvenile incident can include one or more adults but must have at least one juvenile offender aged 10 to 17. Variable and value labels are assigned.

IF (offadult ge 1 and off1017 = 0)juv_off = 0.
IF (off1017 ge 1)juv_off = 1.
VARIABLE LABELS juv_off 'Incident involved a juvenile offender'.
VALUE LABELS juv_off 1 'Juvenile offender(s)' 0 'Adult offender(s)'.

Matching the Segments

To answer this research question, the offense segment must be matched to the incident-level flat file. This matching yields an offense level of analysis. First, from the single segment analysis file, only the records for juvenile multiple offender incidents are saved to a new file, multjuv.sav. This reduces the volume of records and data to make the matching exercise more manageable.

TEMPORARY.
SELECT IF (juv_off = 1 and type_inc = 2).
SAVE OUTFILE = 'Directory:\Path\multijuv.sav'.

The MATCH FILES command matches the offense segment file (saved in "Preparing Individual File Segments For Detailed Analysis") to the newly created multjuv.sav file. The match is performed on the ORI + incident number. This match is one to many: one incident to one or more offenses committed during the same incident. The matched file is saved to mult.juv.

MATCH FILES /TABLE=*
/FILE='Directory:\Path\offense segment.sav'.
/BY ori inc_num.
SELECT IF (juv_off = 1).
RECODE off_code
('200' = 200) ('13A' = 130) ('13B' = 171) ('13C' = 172) ('510' = 510)
('220' = 140) ('250' = 250) ('290' = 290) ('35A' = 350) ('35B' = 351)
('270' = 270) ('210' = 210) ('26A' = 260) ('26B' = 261) ('26C' = 262)
('26D' = 263) ('26E' = 264) ('39A' = 390) ('39B' = 391) ('39C' = 392)
('39D' = 393) ('09A' = 90) ('09B' = 198) ('09C' = 199) ('100' = 190)
('23A' = 160) ('23B' = 161) ('23C' = 162) ('23D' = 163) ('23E' = 164)
('23F' = 165) ('23G' = 166) ('23H' = 167) ('240' = 150) ('370' = 370)
('40A' = 400) ('40B' = 401) ('120' = 120) ('11A' = 110) ('11B' = 180)
('11C' = 181) ('11D' = 182) ('36A' = 360) ('36B' = 361) ('280' = 280)
('520' = 520)into offense.
VALUE LABELS offense
200 'Arson' 130 'Aggravated Assault' 171 'Simple Assault'
172 'Intimidation' 510 'Bribery' 140 'Burglary/Breaking and Entering'
250 'Counterfeiting/Forgery' 290 'Destruction/Damage/Vandalism of Property'
350 'Drug/Narcotics Violations' 351 'Drug Equipment Violations'
270 'Embezzlement' 210 'Extortion/Blackmail'
260 'False Pretenses/Swindle/Confidence Game'
261 'Credit Card/Automated Teller Machine Fraud' 262 'Impersonation'
263 'Welfare Fraud' 264 'Wire Fraud' 390 'Betting/Wagering'
391 'Operating/Promoting/Assisting Gambling' 392 'Gambling Equipment Violations'
393 'Sports Tampering' 90 'Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter'
198 'Negligent Manslaughter' 199 'Justifiable Homicide' 190 'Kidnapping/Abduction'
160 'Pocket-picking' 161 'Purse-snatching' 162 'Shoplifting'
163 'Theft From Building' 164 'Theft From Coin-Operated Machine or Device'
165 'Theft From Motor Vehicle' 166 'Theft of Motor Vehicle Parts or Accessories'
167 'All Other Larceny' 150 'Motor Vehicle Theft' 370 'Pornography/Obscene Material'
400 'Prostitution' 401 'Assisting or Promoting Prostitution' 120 'Robbery'
110 'Forcible Rape' 180 'Forcible Sodomy' 181 'Sexual Assault With An Object'
182 'Forcible Fondling' 183 'Rape of a Male' 360 'Incest' 361 'Statutory Rape'
280 'Stolen Property Offenses' 520 'Weapon Law Violations'.

SAVE OUTFILE = 'Directory:\Path\multijuv.sav'.

Producing the Output

The file in which the segments were matched is opened. A filter is used to select only the property offense group. The output is defined as a frequency table in descending order of the number of occurrences, and the table title and offense labels are assigned for this table only.

GET FILE = 'Directory:\Path\multijuv.sav'.
USE ALL.
COMPUTE filter_$=(msoffgp = 2).
VARIABLE LABEL filter_$ "Property Offenses (FILTER)".
VALUE LABELS filter_$ 0 'Not Selected' 1 'Selected'.
FORMAT filter_$ (f1.0).
FILTER by filter_$.
* Table of Frequencies.
TEMPORARY.
VARIABLE LABELS offense 'Offenses in Juvenile Multiple Offender Incidents
Where a Property Offense Is The Most Serious Offense'.
FREQUENCIES offense /format = dfreq.

This output produces the following table: