JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

TEST ONE STATISTICS

EMILE DURKHEIM – LE SUICIDE

 Gender – Men > Women

 Race – White > African American & Non-White
 Class – Upper > Middle & Lower Class
 Religion – Protestant > Catholics & Jews
 Age – Highest rates in people between ages of 45 – 54
 Education – Some College > College or HS Degree
 Marital Status – Single > Co-habitating or Married

MEDIA AND CRIME

STUDY: New Orleans – Homicide made up 20% - but accounted for

68% of newspaper and 80% of TV coverage of crime and news
stories
RACE:
 Whites = 70% drug users – but only portrayed as such in 33%
of new stories
 Blacks = 20% drug users – portrayed as such in ~60% of
news stories
AGE:
 68% of stories focus on youth violence
 Teens account for less than 15% of crime annually

Crime Myths, waves, fear and hysteria = generate “tougher”

measures from the public – 79% of the public think criminals are not
treated harshly enough, but…
  Prison – 1.5 million people
 Jail – 750,000
 Total Incarceration – 2.2 million people
o US has highest incarceration rate per capita in the world

JUVENILE INCARCERATION RATES

 105,000 incarcerated
 900,000 on probation
 1 million + under some form of correctional control
 2 million if you included juveniles in rehab, half-way houses, etc.

THE “FUNNEL”
 40 million Part I offenses
 13 million become known to police
 Resulting in 2.6 million arrests
 Approximately 350,000 – 400,000 go to prison – or about 1% of
the total committing crimes

CLEARANCE RATES – JUVENILES 2006

 Juveniles accounted for 17% (1.6 million) of all detentions for Part
I and Part II crimes
o 1/3 (500,000) are under 15
o ½ of those committing sex offenses as juveniles are under
15
 Status Offenses:
o 92,000 arrests for underage drinking
o 101,000 curfew violations
o 91,000 running away from home
“STREET” JUVENILE PROFILE
 79% male vs. 21% female
 69% White (including Latino origin) v. African Americans
 80% urban v. 14% suburban v. 6% rural
 Most b/n ages of 15-18
 Chronically poor

FEMALE JUVENILE DELINQUENTS

 Outnumber boys in arrests for prostitution and running away
(make up 60% ofr runaways)
 Show up disproportionatly in larceny-theft (shoplifting) and status
offenses (underage sex)

CRIME: A WHITE PHENOMENON?

 2/3 of arrests for PART I offenses are white
 African American Juveniles arrested at a rate disproportionate to
population
 A/A make up 26% of all index crime arrests
 42% of all violent crimes
 African American account for 12% of the population

STREET CRIMINALS
 Age group 10-25 accounts for…
o 20% of the population
o 55% of all arrests

JUVENILE COURT REPORTING DATA

 1.6 million cases disposed of in juvenile courts in 2002
• 400,000 for violent crimes against a person
• 600,000 property offenses
• 200,000 drug offenses
• 450,000 status offenses