{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.016519823788546256, 'fraction_numerical': 0.004405286343612335, 'mean_word_length': 5.401408450704225, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Starting a fire together: The dynamics of co-offending in juvenile arson

Criminology has an incomplete and imprecise understanding of the qualitative aspects of juvenile co-offending. This article explores one type of juvenile crime, namely arson. Using publicly available judicial records, it analyses 60 cases of fire-setting in Sweden in which there were two or more perpetrators aged under 21 acting jointly. The resulting categorization shows the social organization of juvenile fire-setting to be centred around nine different positions that a young person can take during the planning, preparation and commission phase of an arson offence. The findings highlight the usefulness of bringing together criminological research on co-offending and juvenile fire-setting to better understand the dynamics driving and facilitating youth arson and group aspects of youth delinquency and crime more generally.