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Statistics As It Relates To Juvenile Crime
A juvenile delinquent is one who repeatedly commits crime. However, these juvenile delinquents could most likely have mental disorders or behavioral issues such as schizophrenia, post traumatic stress disorder or bipolar disorder. |
Youth crime is an aspect of crime which receives great attention from the media and politicians. Theories on the causes of youth crime can be viewed as particularly important within criminology. This is firstly because crime is committed disproportionately by those aged between fifteen and twenty five. Secondly, by definition any theories on the causes of crime will focus on youth crime, as adult criminals generally start offending when they were young.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) compiles arrest information provided by law enforcement agencies each year and creates reports examining the trends, rates and statistics of juvenile criminal activity. Every four years, the OJJDP publishes a comprehensive study as part of its Juvenile Offenders and Victims National Report Series. The arrest statistics found in these studies prove to be constructive for comparing general trends. However, the data does not render a precise picture due to certain reasons. Firstly, a large proportion of crimes committed each year go unreported. Secondly, youth are more likely to be caught for committing crimes than adults. Thirdly, the culprit is mostly booked only for the highest level of crime committed. Thus, arrest records exclude some data. For example, if a person robbed a bank at gunpoint and at the time of arrest was found to be carrying drugs, he would be arrested for armed robbery, not drug possession. Lastly, a one on one ratio does not exist between arrests and crimes. In some cases, one crime may result in several arrests especially amongst youth, who recurrently commit crimes in groups. In other cases, a number of crimes may result in only a single arrest.
Although, fewer than half of grave violent crimes by juveniles are reported to law enforcement, on an average over the last 25 years, juvenile crimes account for one-quarter of all the serious violent victimizations. Juvenile violent crime is reported to be at its lowest level since 1987 and fell 30 percent between 1994 and 1998. The rate at which juveniles committed serious violent crimes changed little between 1973 and 1989, touched its pinnacle in 1993, and by 1997 declined to the lowest level since 1986. In 1999, law enforcement officers arrested an estimated 2.5 million juveniles. This represented an 11 year low to 339 for every 100,000 individuals aged 12 to 17. Approximately 104,000 of these arrests were for violent crimes. The most common offense was larceny-theft. Juveniles accounted for 16 percent of all violent crime arrests and 32 percent of all property crime arrests in 1999. They accounted for 54 percent of all arson arrests, 42 percent of vandalism arrests, 31percent of larceny-theft arrests and 33 percent of burglary arrests.
The reasons pertaining to most of the youth arrests are theft, simple assault, drug abuse, disorderly conduct and curfew violations. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention statistics show theft as the pioneering cause of youth arrests. In 1999; 2,468,800 juvenile arrests were recorded; out of which 380,500 were arrests for theft, 198,400 for drug abuse violations and 103,900 for violent crimes. Again in the year 2000, 2,369,400 arrests were recorded; of these, 363,500 were for theft, 203,900 for drug abuse and 98,900 cases marked violent crimes. Across the board, arrest rates dropped 5 percent between 1999 and 2000.
Youth symbolizes the future of any nation. Therefore, passable measures need to be taken to prevent them from falling prey to the world of crime.
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Statistics As It Relates To Juvenile Crime
