Effects of age, period, and cohort on larceny-theft and arson 1965-1984, 1988

This thesis examines the effects of age, time period, and cohort on arrest rates for two specific offenses: larceny-theft and arson. The required longitudinal data were gathered from the Uniform Crime Reports from 1965 through 1984. The analytical procedures used in this study include the dummy variable conversion of the correlation and the multiple regression. We found that the more frequently one is arrested for larceny-theft and arson, the more likely one will be arrested for other offenses. This was more the case for arson than for larceny-theft. The inverse relationship between age and arrest rates for larceny-theft and arson combined show younger persons (15-34) were more prone to be arrested than older ones (35-64). These findings are in agreement with those found in other studies. The regression analysis supported hypotheses 1 and 3, i.e., age and cohort had a signficiant impact on the arrest rates for both larceny-theft and arson. Hypothesis 2 was not confirmed, i.e., time period did not have a signficiant effect on arrest rates for larceny-theft or arson