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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CO-ACCUSED
Involvement
of Co-accused
Number and
Gender of the Co-accused
Relationship
Between the Co-accused and the Offender
| Involvement of Co-accused |
In 40.9% of the homicides examined a co-accused was involved.
| Number and Gender of the Co-accused |
In situations where the offender had only one co-accused, 47% of the time the co-accused was male. When more than one co-accused was involved it was most often one male and one female. Five male co-accuses were involved in more than one of the homicides examined.
| Relationship Between the Co-accused and the Offender |
The relationship between the offender and her co-accused was also explored in this study (Chart 27). In 29.7% of the cases, the co-accused was a friend or acquaintance of the offender. In 14.9% of the cases, the co-accused was a friend with whom the offender had possible romantic ties, though the relationship in these cases was not clearly defined in the files.
In 13.7% of the cases, the co-accused was the offender's spouse (marital or common-law, past or present, male or female). Slightly fewer of the co-accused (13.5%) were the offender's former or current boyfriend/girlfriend and in a few cases (9.5%) the co-accused was the offender's spouse/boyfriend.