Chapter 3

Juvenile Crime,

Criminals, and Victims

Chapter Outline I. Issues in the Measurement of Juvenile

CrimeII. Measuring the Extent of Juvenile

CrimeA. Official Records and Measures

1. Law Enforcement Statisticsa. Uniform Crime Reportsb. Violent Crime Indexc. Property Crime Index

2. Juvenile Court Statisticsa. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Preventionb. Funnel Effect

3. Juvenile Correctional Statistics

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter Outline—Continued

1. Strengths and Problems With Official Records and Measuresa. Dark Figure of Crimeb. Victimless Crimesc. Hierarchy Ruled. National Incident Based Reporting System

B. Victimization Statistics and Measures1. Strengths and Weaknesses with

Victimization Statistics and Measures

C. Self-Report Statistics and Measures1. Strengths and Weaknesses With Self-

Report and Statistics and Measures

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter Outline—Continued

A. Comparison of the Three Methods1. Official Statistics

2. Victimization Surveys

3. Self-Report Surveys

III. Trends in Juvenile Crime and Statistics

IV. Juvenile Victimization Rates and Trends

V. Risk and Protective Factors in Juvenile Delinquency

A. Biology and GeneticsB. Family

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Issues in the Measurement of Juvenile Crime

Measuring total crime in the U.S. is extremely difficult.

The juvenile justice system is decentralized. Each jurisdiction has its own records.

Record-keeping is subject to confidentiality and sealing restrictions.

There are many sentencing options available for juveniles.

Statistics are often dated.

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Causation/Correlation

Correlates – variables that are related to each other. Should not be interpreted to imply causation.

Risk factors – variables that increase the probability of juvenile delinquency.

Protective factors – variables that reduce the probability of juvenile delinquency.

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Measuring Crime: Official Records

Official records: statistics and data collected by law enforcement agencies, courts, and correctional institutions.

Uniform Crime Reports (UCR): statistical report compiled by the FBI from law enforcement agencies across the country. Part I Offenses: Index offenses, most serious crimes in the UCR: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, larceny, burglary, auto theft, and arson.

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Juvenile Arrest Rates For Property Crime: 1980-2003

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Primary Federal Agency responsible for addressing the issues of juvenile crime and delinquency and the problem of missing and exploited children.

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Other Terminology Funnel Effect – the way in which the number of cases processed through the juvenile justice system decrease at each step.

Aggregate data – data collected by agencies on how many total crimes they process. No individual level data are collected, only summary statistics.

Dark figure of crime – the phrase used to describe the number of crimes committed but unreported.

Victimless crimes – crimes in which the victim is a willing participant.

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)

Data collection system implemented to collect individual-level data on offenders, victims, and crime from police departments.

Designed to address many of the problems with the UCR.

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

A national survey of households on the subject of victimization conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).

Demonstrates that crime is much higher than the UCR records.

People are asked if they have been the victim of a crime in the last year.

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Self-Report Studies

Juveniles are asked if they have committed an offense within the last year.

Self-report data has shown that juveniles commit many more offenses than those for which they are arrested.

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Why Did Juvenile Crime Drop?

The punitive juvenile justice system explanation.

The society has changed its values explanation.

The community policing/community justice explanation.

The regression to the mean explanation.

Increased capacity to deal with juvenile offenders, the incapacitation effect.

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Juvenile Homicide and Victimization

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Juvenile Victimization in School

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Biological and Genetic Risk and Protective Factors

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.