CHAPTER 2:
THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF DELINQUENCY
- FBI compiles information on the number of criminal acts reported
- This information is published in the Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
- The UCR is compiled from statistics of more than 17,000 police departments
- Most widely used source of national crime and delinquency statistics
- Part I Offenses:
- Homicide and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, arson, and motor vehicle theft
- Part II offenses:
- Vandalism, liquor law violations, and drug trafficking
MEASURING DELINQUENCY WITH THE UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS
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- The UCR uses three methods to express crime data:
The number of crimes reported to the police and arrests made – raw data
Crime rates per 100,000 people are calculated:
- Crime Rate = (# of Reported Crimes) x (100,000 Population)
Changes in the number and rate of crimes over time
UNIFORM CRIME REPORT
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FIGURE 2.1 PERCENT OF CRIMES CLEARED BY ARREST OR EXCEPTIONAL MEANS
- Victim surveys show that less than 1/2 of all victims report crime to the police
- Teens are unlikely to report crimes to the police if they think that reporting the crime will make them vulnerable to retaliation
- Teens are more willing to talk to parents than police
- The arrest data only includes adolescents who have been caught
- Victimless crimes are undercounted
- Arrest decision criteria vary among police agencies
VALIDITY OF THE UCR
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- It is assumed that the characteristics of samples will be similar to the entire population
- Survey
- People are asked about their attitudes, beliefs, values, and characteristics
- Sampling
- Selecting a limited number of people for study as a representative of a population
- Population
- A group that has similar characteristics
MEASURING DELINQUENCY WITH
SURVEY RESEARCH
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- National Crime Victimization Survey
- A comprehensive nationwide survey of victimization in the U.S.
- Conducted annually by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Justice Statistics
- The survey provides information about victims, offenders, and crime
- NCVS provides a more complete picture of the nation’s crime problem
THE NCVS SURVEY
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- Findings must be interpreted with caution:
- Over-reporting due to victims’ misinterpretation
- Underreporting due to the embarrassment of reporting
- Inability to record the personal criminal activity of those interviewed
- Sampling errors, which produce a group of respondents who do not represent the whole nation
- Inadequate question format
VALIDITY OF THE NCVS
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- Self-Reports:
- Ask adolescents to describe, in detail, their recent and lifetime participation in criminal activity
- Contain questions about attitudes, values, and behaviors
- Can be used to examine the offense histories of the criminal population
SELF-REPORT SURVEYS
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- It might be unreasonable to expect adolescents to candidly admit illegal acts
- Some of them may forget some of their criminal activities
- Comparisons between groups can be highly misleading – some wish to exaggerate the extent of their deviant activities
- The “missing cases” phenomenon
- May measure only non-serious, occasional delinquents
VALIDITY OF SELF-REPORTS
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- UCR:
- Remains the standard unit of analysis on which most criminological research is based
- Omits crimes that are not reported to police
- NCVS:
- Includes unreported crime and important information on the personal characteristics of victims
- Self-Report:
- Provides information on the personal characteristics of offenders
EVALUATING PRIMARY DATA SOURCES
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- Cohort Research Data:
- To observe over time a group of people who share certain characteristics
- Experimental Data:
- To study the effect of the intervention
- Observational and Interview Research:
- To conduct an in depth study on a few subjects
- Mata-analysis and Systematic Review:
- To gather data from a number of previous studies
ALTERNATIVE MEASURES OF DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR
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- Crime rates increased gradually following the 1930s until the 1960s, when the growth rate became much greater
- UCR finds about 13 million arrests are now being made each year
- About 4,200 per 100,000 population
- Official Delinquency Trends
- In 2010, juveniles were responsible for 14% of Part I violent crime arrests and 23% of property crime arrests
- Number of offenses and offenders have been in a decade long decline
CRIME TRENDS IN THE U.S
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- Self Reported Patterns and Trends
- Dark figures of crime are the 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 is accurate, the juvenile crime problem is much greater than the official statistics would lead us to believe
CRIME TRENDS IN THE U.S
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- Crime experts have identified a variety of social, economic, personal, and demographic factors that impact delinquency rate trends:
- Population makeup
- Economy and jobs
- Social problems
- Abortion
- Immigration
- Guns
- Gangs
- Drug use
- Media
- Juvenile Justice Policy
SHAPING TEEN CRIME TRENDS
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- There are approximately 50 million school-age children in the U.S.
- Even though teen crime rates may rise, the impact will be offset by the growing number of relatively crime-free senior citizens
- Serious social and economic conditions can alter the trajectory of delinquency
What the Future Holds…
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- Youths ages 14 to17 make up about 6% of the US population, but account for about 15% for all arrests
- Adults age 50+ account for only about 6% of arrests
- Aging Out Process:
- People commit less crime as they age
- Youths who get involved with delinquency at a very early age (age of onset) are most likely to become career criminals
AGE AND DELINQUENCY
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- Time and Place of Delinquency
- Most acts occur in the Summer, in the months of July & August
- Large urban areas have the highest juvenile violence rates; rural areas have the lowest
- West & South have higher delinquent rates than Midwest & Northeast
- Gender and Delinquency
- Generally, males are more delinquent than females
- Today, there are more similarities than differences between male and female delinquents
CORRELATES OF DELINQUENCY
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- Race and Delinquency
- Racial minorities are disproportionately represented in the arrest statistics
- African American youths are more likely to be formally arrested
- Bias Effects
- Racial Threat Theory
- Racial Profiling
- Caucasians are more likely to receive lenient sentences
- Racial differentials are tied to the social & economic disparity suffered by African American youths
CORRELATES OF DELINQUENCY
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Trayvon Martin Case – Current Example
Trayvon Martin, an African American 17 year old, was killed by George Zimmerman, a Neighborhood watchman in Sanford, Florida in February 2012. Martin was killed while visiting his father in a gated Sanford housing development. Zimmerman was initially freed by the police after saying he shot Martin in self defense. Zimmerman was later charged with second-degree murder. He is awaiting trial.
Do you believe Trayvon was killed due to his race?
Do you think the events would have been different had Trayvon been white?
What do you believe can be done to improve the racial relationship in your own neighborhood?
What can be done to prevent this from happening in the future?
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- Kids in all classes and levels of society commit crime
- Serious crime is more prevalent in socially disorganized lower-class areas, whereas less serious crimes are spread evenly throughout social classes
- Poverty is linked to social problems
- Family disruption, poor educational opportunity, lack of resources are all associated with delinquency
SOCIAL CLASS AND DELINQUENCY
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- There are some of the reasons for the “aging out process”:
Growing older means having to face the future
With maturity comes ability to resist the “quick fix” to problems
Maturation coincides with increased levels of responsibility
Personalities can change with age
Young adults become more aware of the risks that accompany crime
Change in human biology
WHY DOES CRIME DECLINE WITH AGE?
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Jordan Brown’s Case – Current Example
Jordan Brown shot and killed his 8 ½ month pregnant future stepmom while she was asleep in 2009. Brown, who was 11 years old at the time of killing, was convicted as “delinquent” in juvenile court, the equivalent of “guilty” in adult court. Brown will be held at the facility and evaluated every 6 months to determine if he should be released.
In your opinion, why do some young people kill?
Is there anything we can do as a society to prevent young people from committing violent acts, such as murder?
When a child does commit an act this violent, how should they be punished?
Do you agree with how Jordan Brown as handled?
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- A relatively small number of youths begin to violate the law early (early onset) and continue at a high rate well into adulthood (persistence)
- Chronic Recidivist:
- Someone who has been arrested 5 times or more before the age of 18
CHRONIC OFFENDING
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FIGURE 2.2 DISTRIBUTION OF OFFENSES IN THE PHILADELPHIA COHORT
- The chronic career offender is most likely associated with the research efforts of Marvin Wolfgang (1972)
- 54% of the sample’s delinquent youth were repeat offenders
- 627 boys (6% of the total sample) were responsible for 52% of all offenses
- Two factors are shown to affect recidivism:
The seriousness of the original offense
The severity of punishment
- The greater the punishment, the more likely to repeat delinquency
DELINQUENCY IN A BIRTH COHORT
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- Studies indicate chronic juvenile offenders continue their law-violating careers as adults:
- Continuity of crime
- What causes Chronic Offending?
Involvement in criminal activity
Low intellectual development
Parental drug use
Problems in learning & motor skills, cognitive abilities, family relation
Alcohol abuse, economically dependent, lower aspirations, a weak employment record
- Youths have a long juvenile record are most likely continue their offending career into adulthood
STABILITY IN CRIME: FROM
DELINQUENT TO CRIMINAL
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Programs for chronic youth offenders – current example
Based on a three-year project initiated in 2006 by the Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family (CRILF), the most effective intervention programs for chronic and persistent youth offenders are the ones that include the following five major domains: individual, family, peer, school, and community.
Can you explain why these domains are critical to chronic and persistent youth offenders?
Why do you think they work?
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- Juveniles are also victims of crime, and data from victim surveys can help us understand the nature of juvenile victimization
- NCVS data indicates that young people are more likely to be victims of crime than adults
- Male teenagers have a significantly higher chance than females of becoming victims
- African American youth have a greater chance of becoming victims of violent crimes than European American youth
JUVENILE VICTIMIZATION
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- Teens tend to be victimized by their peers (i.e. other teens) ranging between 16 to 25
- Victimization is mostly intraracial
- White against white”, “Black against black”, “Latino against Latino”, etc…
- Most teens are victimized by people with whom they are acquainted
- Victimization is most likely to occur during the day
- Teens can also be victims of sexual abuse, and most sexual abuse occurs in the home
THE VICTIMS AND THEIR CRIMINALS
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Three major methods of measuring juvenile delinquency:
UCR
NCVS
Self-reported
Recent trends in the delinquency rate
List and discuss the social correlates of delinquency
The concept of the chronic offender
Teenagers are much more likely to become victims of crime
SUMMARY
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