ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the typology of offending behaviour and discusses how it was produced. It attempts to set the findings of the study and the typology within a broader criminological framework. Self-expression, social activity, social norm and coping offending were types more often found among the youngest group, and self-expression in particular was by some way the most common type in relation to past offending behaviour. The offending of women was more likely than that of men to be explained as self-expression or as coping, and less likely to be explained in terms of social activity, life-style, or professionalism. Women do not have equal access to these networks which support and organise criminal activity; moreover, as a criminological truism, women's offending is overall less serious and less persistent than men's. In relation to gender differences, there are important discrepancies in the kind of accounts given of offending, very much in the direction predicted by criminological work in this field.
