Corporate offending in Dutch inland shipping: A trajectory analysis

Abstract

Objectives: Describe the prevalence, frequency, and longitudinal development of regulatory offences within Dutch inland shipping on both the ship and business level. Examine whether latent groups with differing trajectories can be distinguished and compare differences between these trajectory groups. Methods: Longitudinal inland shipping inspection data from several inspection agencies are analysed. Lorenz curves and Gini coefficients are used to describe offence distributions. Group-based trajectory modelling is applied to analyse the longitudinal development of regulatory violations of ships and corporations. Between-group comparisons are made using (multivariate) analysis of variance. Results: A skewed distribution of offending on both the ship and business level is found. On both levels of analysis, four trajectory groups display differing developments in the distribution of offending. Although differences in characteristics between trajectory groups were present, effect sizes were small. Conclusions: Disproportionality in corporate offending at both levels of analysis is in constant motion. Regulators need to regularly (re)identify their target groups.