Overlapping crime: Stability and specialization of co-offending relationships

•Dyadic analyses of co-offending have mostly ignored the multiplex nature of social ties.•We extend debate of criminal specialization/versatility to the dyadic level.•Criminals tend to reuse the same individuals as co-offenders.•Co-offending is less specialized than individual offense profiles suggest.

Dyadic analyses of relationships between criminals have mostly ignored the multiplex nature of criminal ties. This study attempts to provide a more complete assessment of co-offending networks by incorporating the different types of crime that relate individuals with each other. Drawing on a large dataset of arrests in Quebec between 2003 and 2009, we focus on co-offending stability and specialization and illustrate how co-offending networks based on different types of criminal activities overlap. We portray a pattern of co-offending, which extends debate of criminal specialization/versatility to the dyadic level. Our study illustrates the ways in which the frequency and spectrum of crime include a relational component. More generally, the article emphasizes the need to consider the semantics of network ties, and further, the association between different types of networks, which ultimately offers a reassessment of social structure.