Chapter 2 The Nature and Extent of Delinquency

Chapter 2 The Nature and Extent of Delinquency
Juvenile Delinquency Chapter 2 The Nature and Extent of Delinquency

Chapter Objectives 1. Be familiar with the various ways to gather data on delinquency. 2. Know the problems associated with collecting data on delinquency. 3. Be able to discuss the recent trends in the delinquency rate. 4. Recognize how age and gender influence the juvenile crime rate. 5. Discuss the association between the economy and delinquency.

Chapter Objectives 6. Understand the association between delinquency and social problems. 7. List and discuss the social correlates of delinquency. 8. Discuss the concept of the chronic offender. 9. Identify the causes of chronic offending. 10. Be familiar with the factors that predict teen victimization.

Case Profile - Jamesetta
Born into urban poverty with underemployed parents who also struggled with substance abuse Suffered physical and sexual abuse, foster care placement at age 5 Age 9 shoplifting, truant and violating curfew Age 13 assaulted foster mother and entered the Juvenile Justice system as a habitual delinquent Sent to live with relatives, and began exhibiting sexualized behavior Returned to court, refused to cooperate

Case Profile - Jamesetta
Pregnant at 14, and determined to keep baby Enrolled in school for parenting teens, continued to have status offenses, but no further law violations Following the birth, Jamesetta began to understand consequences, found employment and completed high school Maintains a positive view of future and is free of further law violations Jamesetta is an example of a high-risk juvenile, relatively typical of those who become involved in more than a million serious illegal acts and engage the juvenile justice system

Measuring Delinquency with the UCR/NIBRS
FBI compiles information on the number of criminal acts reported, this information is published in the Uniform Crime Report/National Incident Based Reporting System The UCR/NIBRS is compiled of statistics from more than 17,000 police departments Part I offenses include homicide, rape, burglary etc. Part II offenses include vandalism, liquor law violations, and drug trafficking

Validity of the UCR/NIBRS
Victim surveys show that less than half of all victims report the crime to the police Teens are unlikely to report crimes to the police in which they are vulnerable The arrest data count only adolescents who have been caught…not those who evade capture. Victimless crimes are significantly undercounted Arrest decision criteria vary among agencies…discretion vs. full enforcement Because the UCR/NIBRS arrest statistics are disaggregated (broken down) by age they can be used to estimate adolescent crime…as with all statistics we must look at these numbers with caution

Validity of the UCR/NIBRS
Measuring Official Delinquency Despite these limitations, the nature of arrest data remains constant over time and therefore is considered reliable Arrest data can provide some indication of the nature and trends in juvenile crime

Measuring Delinquency with Survey Research
Sampling - selecting a limited number of people for study as a representative of a population It is important to not make selection too broad for purposes of accuracy

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
A comprehensive nationwide survey of victimization in the U.S. 42,000 Households/78,000 Individuals 12 years or older Focus on non-reported crimes (beyond the UCR/NIBRS) for a more complete picture Validity of the NCVS - Findings must be interpreted with caution Over-reporting due to victims’ misinterpretation Inability to record the personal criminal activity of those interviewed Inadequate question format

Self-Report Surveys Asks adolescents to describe, in detail, their recent and lifetime participation in criminal activity Contains questions about attitudes, values, and behaviors Self-reports can be used to examine the offense histories of the criminal population Validity of Self-Reports Comparisons between groups can be highly misleading Can skew data and provide misleading results

Evaluating the Primary Data Sources
UCR/NIBRS remains the standard unit of analysis NCVS includes unreported crime and important information on the personal characteristics of victims Self-Report surveys can provide information on the personal characteristics of offenders

Crime Trends in the US Crime rates increased gradually following the 1930s until the 1960s – sharp increase thru 70’s UCR/NIBRS finds about 14 million arrests are now being made each year, or about 4,700 per 100,000 population Official Delinquency Trends In 2008, juveniles were responsible for 16% of Part I violent crime arrests and 26% of property crime arrests Number of offenses and offenders have been in a decade long decline

Crime Trends in the US Self Reported Patterns and Trends
The Dark Figure of Crime are those incidents of crime and delinquency that go undetected by police Monitoring The Future (MTF) is the nation’s most important ongoing self-report survey If the MTF data are accurate, the juvenile crime problem is much greater than the official statistics would lead us to believe

MTF Survey of Criminal Activity of H
MTF Survey of Criminal Activity of H.S Seniors, Percentage Engaging in Offenses

What the Future Holds… Some experts predict a significant increase in teen violence if current population trends persist: Approximately 50 million school-age children in the U.S. “Crack babies” turn out to be extremely prone to delinquency activity Serious social and economic conditions can alter the trajectory of delinquency

Correlates of Delinquency
Time and place of Delinquency Most delinquent acts occur during the warm summer months of July and August There are geographic differences in the incidence of delinquent behavior: Large urban areas have the highest juvenile violence rates Rural areas have the lowest Western and southern states have had consistently higher delinquency rates than the Midwest and Northeast

Gender and Delinquency Males are significantly more delinquent than females Serious violent crime is 4 to 1 Property crime is 2 to 1

Gender and Delinquency One exception: Girls are more likely than boys to be arrested as runaways Raises the questions as to: Whether girls runaway from home more often than boys, or Is the matter of a female runaway deemed more serious due to paternalistic attitudes of police and society

Gender and Delinquency In the past decade, the number of arrests of male delinquents decreased about 19%, whereas the number of female delinquents arrested only decreased about 8%...if this continues, there will eventually be gender convergence in delinquency MTF data also seem to show that the incidence of female delinquency is much higher than believed earlier, and that the most common crimes committed by males are also the ones most female offenders commit (See Table 2.3)

Gender and Delinquency The crimes male and females commit are the same Shoplifting: boys 31%, girls 26% Hurt Someone Badly: boys 18%, girls 7% The juveniles who reported engaging in serious violent crime are still predominantly males

Race and Delinquency There are about 40 million White and 10 million Black youths ages 5 to 17 (4 to 1 ratio) Racial minorities are disproportionately represented in the UCR/NIBRS arrest statistics (Exhibit 2.2) Statistics show that minority youths are more likely to be arrested for serious criminal behavior

Race and Delinquency Self-Report studies suggests that the delinquent behavior rates of Black and White teenagers are generally similar and that differences in arrest statistics are caused by other factors Does this indicate discrimination by police? (formal processing by police and courts) Do Black youths underreport more serious crimes?

Bias Effects Racial Profiling of Minorities Caucasians are more likely to receive lenient sentences

Social Class and Delinquency The relationship between economic status and delinquency has been a key element of study The relationship is focused upon causes rooted in the social forces that are found most prevalently in lower-class areas: Poverty Unemployment Social disorganization Gangs Resource Deprivation Culture conflict, and Alienation

Age and Delinquency Desistance from Crime or Spontaneous Remission It is generally believed that age is inversely related to crime, as people age, the likelihood that they will commit crime declines Youths 14 to 17 make up 6% of the U.S. population, of all arrests Regardless of race, sex, social class, intelligence or any other social variable, people commit less crime as they age – referred to the aging out process Age of Onset Those who demonstrate antisocial tendencies at a very early age are more often likely to commit more crimes for a longer period of time

Age and Delinquency Why does crime decline with age (“Aging Out”) Growing older mans having to face the future (Delayed Gratification) With maturity comes the ability to resist the “quick fix” (Non-destructive solutions to problems) Increased levels of responsibility (Marriage, children, jobs, education...) Personalities change (Self-control) Awareness of risks that accompany crime (Prison versus juvenile hall) Changes in Human Biology…Hormonal activity in the brain (Serotonin v Dopamine Levels)

Chronic Offending: Careers in Delinquency
Although most juveniles age out of crime, a relatively small number of youths begin to violate the law early in their lives (early onset) and continue at a high rate well into adulthood (persistence) They are resistant to change and are immune to the effects of punishment These Chronic Offenders are responsible for a significant amount of all delinquent and criminal activity A key fact is that most research shows that early, repeated delinquent activity is the best predictor of future adult criminality

Delinquency in a Birth Cohort Wolfgang, Figlio and Sellin (1972) - See Figure 2.4 Followed 9,945 boys born in Philadelphia from birth to age 18 Data was from police files & school records 6,470 had no police contact 3,475 third) had some police contact 1,862 (54%) had repeated police contacts 627 were deemed “chronic” and had more than 5 police contacts

Delinquency in a Birth Cohort Wolfgang, Figlio and Sellin (1972) The 627 accounted for 18% of the delinquent population and 6% of the total sample, but were responsible for: 52% of all the offenses 71% of the homicides 82% of the robberies 64% of the aggravated assaults

Delinquency in a Birth Cohort Wolfgang, Figlio and Sellin (1972) Arrest and juvenile court did little to deter chronic offenders, the greater the punishment the more likely they were to engage in repeat delinquent behavior Seriousness of the original offense and severity of the punishment were the two determining factors for recidivism Researchers concluded that the efforts of the juvenile justice system to eliminate delinquency may be futile

Delinquency in a Birth Cohort Wolfgang, Figlio and Sellin (1972) A second cohort was chosen, composed of boys born in 1958 The finding were substantially the same: “A few chronic offenders are responsible for a significant portion of all delinquent acts”

Stability in Crime: From Delinquent to Criminal One study followed 10% of the original study to age 30 and found that 70% of the persistent adult offenders had also been chronic juvenile offenders Chronic juvenile offenders had an 80% chance of becoming adult offenders Kids who are disruptive at 5 or 6 are most likely to exhibit disruptive behavior throughout adolescence However, the severity of offending rather than frequency of criminal behavior had the greatest impact on later adult criminality

What Causes Chronic Offending? Research indicates that chronic offenders suffer from a number of personal, environmental, social, and developmental deficits (See Exhibit 2.3) Other research studies have found 3 predictive factors for future chronic offending: Involvement in criminal activity (Arrest before 15), Relatively low intellectual development, and parental drug involvement were for future chronic offending

What Causes Chronic Offending? Individual Factors (Exhibit 2.3) Early antisocial behavior Emotional factors such as high behavioral activation and low behavioral inhibition Poor cognitive development Low intelligence Hyperactivity

What Causes Chronic Offending? School and Community Factors (Exhibit 2.3) Failure to bond to school, poor academic performance, low academic aspiration Living in a poor family or neighborhood Neighborhood disorganization Concentration of delinquent peer groups Access to weapons

What Causes Chronic Offending? Family Factors (Exhibit 2.3) Parenting, maltreatment, and family violence Divorce Parental psychopathology Teenage parenthood Family structure Large family size

What Causes Chronic Offending? Peer Factors (Exhibit 2.3) Association with deviant peers Peer rejection

Policy Implications If a relatively few offenders commit a great portion of all delinquent acts and then persist as adult criminals, it follows that steps should be taken to limit their criminal opportunities Identify persistent offenders at the earliest opportunity and provide specific treatment interventions

Juvenile Victimization
Statistics for Juvenile Victimization are gathered from the National Crime Victimization Survey This survey measures the nature of the crime and the characteristics of victims This is accomplished by surveying 40,000 households or 75,000 individuals twice a year

Victimization in the United States The NCVS provides estimates of the total number of: Personal Contact Crimes, assault, rape and robbery Household Crimes, burglary, larceny and vehicle theft The NCVS estimates there are 23 million criminal incidents per year

Young Victims NCVS data indicate that young people are more likely to be victims of crime than adults The chance of victimization declines with age Teens under 19 have a 15 times greater chance of being victimized than their grandparents (over 65) Male teenagers have a significantly higher chance than females of becoming victims Blacks higher risk of violent victimization than whites Juveniles are more likely to be victims than adults

The Victims and Their Criminals The NCVS also tells us about the relationship between victims and offenders Victimized by peers Victimization is intraracial (within race) Most teens are victimized by people with whom they are acquainted; peers, family and relatives Victimization is more likely to occur during the day, (this is the opposite for adults) Physical and Sexual Victimization is extremely high

Chapter 2 The Nature and Extent of Delinquency

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