Expert Versus Novice: Criminal Expertise in Sexual Burglary and Sexual Robbery

Abstract

Although there has been considerable variation in the application of expertise to offending populations, one aspect that is widely agreed upon is that expertise is best represented on a continuum from novice to expert. The present study, therefore, investigated criminal expertise in 877 hybrid offenses that involve sexual assault and robbery (i.e., sexual robbery) or burglary (i.e., sexual burglary). Specifically, we analyzed the crime-commission processes of both these offenses using latent class analyses to determine the heterogeneity of criminal expertise among each domain. Results showed an expert to novice continuum in both domains, including a “domain-specific” expert sexual burglary subgroup who was characterized by a high degree of offense-related competencies relevant to sexual burglary. We also found an expert subgroup in sexual robbery who had more general skills (i.e., overlapping expertise) relevant to violent offending. Implications for offender decision-making, treatment, and practice are discussed.

The role of criminal expertise in serial sexual offending: a comparison to “novices”

“…As Nee (2019) notes, offenders may develop expertise through repeated practice within the same domain, or they may gain more "general" or "overlapping" skills that transfer across similar domains. For example, Reale et al (2021b) found that criminal expertise varies from novice to expert both within and across sexual burglary and sexual robbery domains. Interestingly, both domains had "intermediate" subgroups who shared similar skilled behaviors that were not "specialized" or "domain-specific," but rather, were broadly relevant for interpersonally violent offenses (e.g.…”

“…As past studies have had limited success differentiating criminal sophistication between serial and single-incident offenders, a focus on sexual theft offenses may provide a better avenue to capture criminal expertise. Moreover, Reale et al (2021b) found that hybrid sexual theft offenses involve both "specialized" domain-specific skills and more "general" skills related to violent offending. Thus, hybrid offenses can provide a wider range of behavioral indicators of criminal expertise across the crime-commission process.…”

“…Based on previous studies on criminal expertise and criminal sophistication in sexual offending (Reale et al, 2021a(Reale et al, , 2021bBeauregard and Proulx, 2017;Ceccato, 2014;Chopin et al, 2021) and serial offending (Corovic et al, 2012;Park et al, 2008;Slater et al, 2014) 36 variables were examined and conceptualized under the following two main subcategories:…”

“…Behavioral indicators of criminal expertise (pre-crime, crime and post-crime phases). We included 28 variables that reflect criminal sophistication in modus operandi behavior (Beauregard and Proulx, 2017;Ceccato, 2014;Chopin et al, 2021;Corovic et al, 2012;Park et al, 2008;Slater et al, 2014) and can infer the presence of expertise in sexual and hybrid sexual-theft crimes (Reale et al, 2021a(Reale et al, , 2021bChopin et al, 2021;Ward, 1999). All variables reflective of criminal expertise were coded dichotomously (0 = no; 1 = yes).…”

“…The pre-crime phase included variables that have been found in previous literature to be indicative of planning and criminal sophistication or expertise (Reale et al, 2021a(Reale et al, , 2021bBeauregard and Proulx, 2017;Ceccato, 2014;Chopin et al, 2021;Park et al, 2008;Slater et al, 2014;Ward, 1999). These included as follows:…”