That's a perspective that has been taken in the past. We know that some researchers have used these data in taking that approach. One of the difficulties in preparing a data set, and doing the analysis in quite that way with the court data, is that there are times when the sequencing of convictions is different from the sequencing of offences. Coming up with the methods to take that into consideration, in particular with low-volume offences, is particularly difficult.
On November 22nd, 2006. See this statement in context.