Juvenile Delinquency

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Juvenile Delinquency

• Measuring Crime

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Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

• FBI Compiles data from the nations law
  enforcement agencies on crime for
  
• Numbers of arrests
• Reports of crimes
• This is the least desirable of crime indicators,
  but still too often criminologists rely on it.
  
• It is also the most widely used publicly by
  politicians, media, and police.
  

3
Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

• FBI Compiles data from the nations law
  enforcement agencies on crime for
  
• Numbers of arrests
• Reports of crimes
• This is the least desirable of crime indicators,
  but still too often criminologists rely on it.
  
• It is also the most widely used publicly by
  politicians, media, and police.
  
• UCR reports more variation in crime over time
  than the other 2 indicators. This variation
  leads many to believe that crime increases more
  than it actually does in some years.
• Over the last ten years, this measure has
  indicated that crime is falling.
  

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Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

• Strengths
• Reports Homicides
• Can easily be disaggregated by demographic
  characteristics
  

• Weaknesses

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Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

• Strengths
• Reports Homicides
• Can easily be disaggregated by demographic
  characteristics
  
• Shows long term, overall trends in crime
• Shows official (police) activity

• Weaknesses

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Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

• Strengths
• Reports Homicides
• Can easily be disaggregated by demographic
  characteristics
  
• Shows long term, overall trends in crime
• Shows official (police) activity

• Weaknesses
• Not all police units participate
• Police can cook the numbers
• Underreports all crime
• Non-reporting
• Non-charging

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Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

• Strengths
• Reports Homicides
• Can easily be disaggregated by demographic
  characteristics
  
• Shows long term, overall trends in crime
• Shows official (police) activity

• Weaknesses
• Not all police units participate
• Police can cook the numbers
• Underreports all crime
• Non-reporting
• Non-charging
• Arrest numbers are not accurate at the individual
  level
  
• Cannot know the number of people committing any
  particular crime
  
• Some are never caught
• Some are arrested on multiple occasions or commit
  multiple crimes
  

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Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

• Strengths
• Reports Homicides
• Can easily be disaggregated by demographic
  characteristics
  
• Shows long term, overall trends in crime
• Shows official (police) activity

• Weaknesses (continued)
• Social emphases on particular crimes can look
  like increases or declines (trends can be falsely
  manufactured or masked)
  
• Increases or declines in police activity (e.g.,
  number of officers, funding) can influence
  numbers
  

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National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

• Annual victimization survey conducted by the US
  Census Bureau for the Bureau of Justice
  Statistics
  
• Conducted since 1973
• Nationally representative sample of roughly
  50,000 US households
  

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National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

• Annual victimization survey conducted by the US
  Census Bureau for the Bureau of Justice
  Statistics
  
• Conducted since 1973
• Nationally representative sample of persons 12
  and over in roughly 50,000 US households
  
• Survey items include victimization questions
  about
  
• Rape Vehicle theft
• Sexual assault Battery
• Robbery Burglary

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National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

• Survey items include victimization questions
  about
  
• Rape Vehicle theft
• Sexual assault Battery
• Robbery Burglary
• NCVS is the best of the crime indicators, giving
  the most true image of US crime
  
• NCVS typically depicts rates of crime as stable.
  Lack of movement makes it un-sensational and not
  popular.
  
• Used to show that crime has not been going up.
  Over the last ten years, this measure has
  indicated that crime is falling.

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National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

• Strengths
• More accurate portrayal of criminal activity than
  official data
  
• Not influenced by official activity
• Shows crime trends since 1973

• Weaknesses

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National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

• Strengths
• More accurate portrayal of criminal activity than
  official data
  
• Not influenced by official activity
• Shows crime trends since 1973

• Weaknesses
• Does not provide arrest information (official
  activity)
  
• Cannot tell us about individual criminals
• Cannot know the number of people committing
  crimes
  
• Many crimes are by repeat offenders
• Relies on memory and judgment (demographic
  characteristics of offender may be inaccurate)

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Self-Report Studies

• Social scientists give questionnaires to subjects
  asking them to reveal their own participation in
  delinquent behavior.
  
• Often conducted in schools
• ISRs Monitoring the Future is one of the most
  frequently cited (especially for drug use among
  kids)
  
• These studies demonstrate that delinquency is
  much more common than official data suggest
  (almost universal)
  
• They also indicate that levels of delinquency
  over time remain fairly stable

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Self-Report Studies

• Strengths
• Gives individual-level data about the attitudes,
  behaviors, and extent of involvement of
  individual delinquents
  
• Allows exploration of the processes involved in
  creating delinquency
  
• Some allow estimates of rates of participation in
  delinquency

• Weaknesses

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Self-Report Studies

• Strengths
• Gives individual-level data about the attitudes,
  behaviors, and extent of involvement of
  individual delinquents
  
• Allows exploration of the processes involved in
  creating delinquency
  
• Some allow estimates of rates of participation in
  delinquency
  
• Provides data on private or non-identified
  delinquency
  
• Comparative research shows correspondence between
  self-report studies and other studies
  

• Weaknesses

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Self-Report Studies

• Strengths
• Gives individual-level data about the attitudes,
  behaviors, and extent of involvement of
  individual delinquents
  
• Allows exploration of the processes involved in
  creating delinquency
  
• Some allow estimates of rates of participation in
  delinquency
  
• Provides data on private or non-identified
  delinquency
  
• Comparative research shows correspondence between
  self-report studies and other studies
  

• Weaknesses
• You gotta wonder whether people will be honest on
  surveys about illegal behaviors
  
• Exaggerated reporting
• Recall about specific behaviors is difficult
• Often, surveys are not representative (e.g., they
  may exclude most hardened delinquents who have
  dropped out)
  
• Drug use may be most underreported behavior

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Crime in the USA LOT of Myths

• There are many misperceptions about crime in the
  US. Here I will attempt to correct the record.
  (Most of the following charts and graphs came
  from reports at the Bureau of Justice Statistics
  website.)
• For example
• At what time of day are kids most likely to
  commit a crime?
  
• Are curfew laws intelligent?

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Crime in the US
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Crime in the US
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Crime in the US
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Crime in the US
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Crime in the USExpected Rise in Crime May be
Materializing
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Crime in the US
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Crime in the US
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Crime in the US
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Crime in the US
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Crime in the US
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Crime in CANADA!
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Crime in the US
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Crime in the US
http//ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/offenders/qa03104.
asp?qaDate2002
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Crime in the US

• Of the US Population
• 25 are 0 - 17 years old
• 18 are 5 - 17
• 6 are 14 - 17

2003 The juvenile proportion of arrests exceeds
the juvenile proportion of crimes
clearedjuveniles are more likely to commit
crimes in groups and to be arrested than adults
http//www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/209735/intro.html
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Crime in the US
Violent crimes included are homicide, rape,
robbery, and both simple and aggravated assault.


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Crime in the US
Violent crimes included are homicide, rape,
robbery, and both simple and aggravated assault.


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Crime in the US
Violent crimes included are homicide, rape,
robbery, and both simple and aggravated assault.


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Crime in the US
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Crime in the US
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Murder reflects the intra-demographic nature of
crime.
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Crime in the USViolent Crime Arrests among
Juveniles
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Crime in the US
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Crime in the USProperty Crime Arrests among
Juveniles
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Crime in the USProperty Crime Arrests among
Juveniles
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Crime in the USArrests for Drug Abuse among
Juveniles
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Crime in the USArrests for Drug Abuse among
Juveniles
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Crime in the US
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Crime in the USArrests for Drunkenness among
Juveniles
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Crime in the USArrests for Drunkenness among
Juveniles
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Crime in the USArrests for Running Away among
Juveniles
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Crime in the USArrests for Running Away among
Juveniles
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Crime in the US
Number of life sentences has quadrupled since
1984.Sentencing Project.
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Crime in the US
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Crime in the US
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Crime in the US
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Crime in the US
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Crime in the US
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Crime in the US
An item purchased for 1 in 1982 should cost
1.91 now.
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Drug Use and Crime
Serious Violent Crime Offending among 12 17
year-olds.
The offending rate is the ratio of the number of
crimes (aggravated assault, rape, and robbery,
i.e., stealing by force or threat of violence)
reported to the National Crime Victimization
Survey that involved at least one offender
perceived by the victim to be 12 through 17 years
of age, plus the number of homicides reported to
the police that involved at least one juvenile
offender, to the number of juveniles in the
population.