Juvenile Crime and Punishment

Causes of Youth Violence Complex interplay of factors Correlations, not predictions Accumulation of risk Number of resources

The Development of Delinquency Individual-level risk factors Social factors Community factors Neighborhood factors

The system... ….. founded on the principle of hope designed to help youth overcome criminal tendencies focused on rehabilitation, not punishment based on the assumption that youth are not fully responsible for their actions

Informal proceedings A high level of court discretion Judge acting “ in the child ’ s best interest ” Closed court proceedings Confidential records Charged as “ delinquents ” not “ criminals ” Found “ delinquent ” not “ guilty ” No imprisonment, training schools and reformatories It is a system... …..

The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, 1992 Limits placement of juveniles in adult facilities Jail removal requirement: they shall not be detained or confined in any institution in which they have contact with adult(s) incarcerated because they have been convicted of a crime or are awaiting trial on criminal charges

The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act Exempt are juveniles held in secure facilities if the juvenile is being tried as a criminal for a felony or has been convicted as a criminal felon.

The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act Sight and Sound Separation: In institutions other than adult jails or lockups, confinement is permitted if the juvenile and adult inmates cannot see each other and no conversation between them is possible.

The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act Requires that states determine whether the proportion of minorities in confinement exceeds the proportion in the general state population. If such over representation is found, states must implement efforts to reduce it.

Sources of Crime Data Arrest Rates Victim Reports Self-report Data

Outlining the problem In million arrests were made of persons <18 years In 1997 juveniles accounted for 19% or all arrests and 17% of violent crime arrests In 1997, despite a recent 4 year decline, violent crime arrests were 49% higher than in 1988

A perplexing phenomenon... The number of juvenile arrests for murder decreased 39% from 1993 to 1997 The number of juvenile arrest for other violent crimes has also declined And, these decreases are occurring despite continuing growth in the juvenile population!

Violent Crimes …... Where do they occur? What types of crimes? Who commits them? How are the committed? When are they committed?

Geographic Concentration 85% of the 3,141 counties in the U.S. reported no juvenile homicide offenders in % reported only one offender In contrast, 25% of all known juvenile homicide offenders were reported in just FIVE counties that contain the following cities: LA, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Detroit.

Figure 1: Delinquency Cases Processed in Juvenile Court,

Murders and Homicides 1,700 juveniles were implicated in 2,300 murders in 1997 (12% of all murders) Males were responsible for most of the growth in homicides by juveniles from the mid-1980s through 1994.

Juvenile Murderers: Males offenders vs. Female Offenders

Number of Juvenile Murderers by Age Group

Denver, Rochester, and Pittsburgh Studies Age and gender differences

Juvenile Homicide Offenders by Race

Who were the victims? Most victims were male (85%), slightly more were black (49%) than white (48%), and 11% of victims were below the age of 18. In 1997, 11% of victims were family members, 56% were acquaintances, and 34% were strangers

Homicides by Juveniles by Offender ’ s Relationship to Victim

Type of Crime In 1997, fifty-six percent of victims of juvenile homicides were killed with a firearm, 29% decline from 1995

Homicides by Juveniles by Weapon Used

1997 Youth Risk Behavior Survey 9% of high school students had carried a weapon on school property in the past month In a year, 7% of high school kids were threatened or injured with a weapon at school Fear of school-related violence kept 4% of high school kids home at least once in the past month

What type of crimes do juveniles commit? What type of crimes do juveniles commit? 5.38 % violent crime (murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) 26.80% property crime (burglary, arson, theft) 67.82% other crimes (top categories are vandalism, prostitution, DWI, liquor law violations, drug possession/abuse)

Prevalence of crimes by juveniles Most of the data are provided by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and relate to ARREST RATES

Prevalence of crimes by juveniles While juveniles below age 13 were involved in only 9% of all juvenile arrests, these very young juveniles were involved in a higher proportions of the following crimes: arson (35%), nonviolent sex offense (18%), larceny-theft (15%), simple assault (13%), burglary (12%), and forcible rape (11%).

Prevalence of crimes by juveniles Black youth made up 15% of the juvenile population in 1997 but they were involved in 28% of all juvenile arrests. Black youth were disproportionately involved in juvenile arrests for murder (56%), forcible rape (45%), robbery (60%), aggravated assault (42%), motor vehicle theft (38%), fraud (42%), and gambling (77%).

Time of Day Juvenile Violent Crimes Are Committed

Time of Day Juvenile Gang Crimes Are Committed

When are violent crimes likely to be committed? Juveniles are more likely to commit violent crimes on school days than on non-school days, and directly after school than at any other time of day.

Rate of Growth in Juvenile Crime While changing little between , the rate at which juveniles committed violent crimes increased nearly 70% from 1987 to then declined and returned to the 1989 level in 1995 and then continued to decline through 1997.

The Good News Serious violent crimes by juveniles dropped 25% between and has continued to drop since then. Most encouraging is the nearly 20% decline in murders by juveniles between

The Good News In 1997, juvenile homicides were the lowest in the decade but still 21% above the average of the 1980s

Violent Crimes Committed by Juveniles

Juvenile Arrest Rate for Forcible Rape

Juvenile Arrest Rate for Robbery

Juvenile Arrest Rate for Aggravated Assault

However ……. While the wave of juvenile violence has subsided somewhat this is not to say that we have solved the problem of juvenile crime. The current level of juvenile violence is still at an unacceptable level

What happened in 1995? For the first time in 8 years the juvenile violent crime arrest rate declined in A substantial drop of 17% over 1994 numbers! Nearly all the decline was in homicides was by black juvenile males Nearly all the decline was in fire-arm related homicides

What happened in 1995? Nearly all the decline from 1994 to 1995 was in arrests for younger juveniles (-2% for year olds, -5% for younger juveniles)

Trend Continued Through 1997 By 1997, the juvenile violent crime arrest rate was at its lowest level in the 1990s In 1997, both the male and female juvenile violent crime arrest rate decreased since 1995 The violent crime arrest rates for very young juveniles (10-12) also declined from

State Responses Study by the National Center of Juvenile Justice ( )

Change in the Juvenile Justice System to punish, hold accountable, and incarcerate for longer periods of time those juveniles who, by history or type of offense, passed a threshold of tolerated juvenile law violating behavior.

State Changes to: jurisdictional authority (juvenile to criminal court) sentencing authority (new sentencing options) confidentiality (removal of traditional confidentiality provisions) victim's rights (increased the role of victims in court hearings)

Changes to sentencing options: judicial waivers (waive juvenile court jurisdiction) prosecutor discretion (at the will of state prosecutor) legislative exclusion (state statutes exclude certain juvenile offenders from juvenile court jurisdiction)

Juvenile Court Processing of Delinquency Cases, 1996

Delinquency Cases Waived to Criminal Court,

From all but 5 states enacted or expanded provisions for transferring juveniles from juvenile court jurisdiction to criminal court for prosecution.

A trend away from traditional juvenile dispositions is emerging, and "blended sentencing” options at the state level are creating a middle- ground between traditional juvenile and adult sanctions

As many states have shifted away from rehabilitation and toward punishment, accountability, and public safety. The emerging trend is one of dispositions based on the offense. Retribution and deterrence have replaced rehabilitation as the primary juvenile justice goals

Problems that might force the issue: many more juveniles are being held in crowded secure public facilities in 1997 than in 1991 crowding in juvenile facilities (detention facilities, training schools) has increased as the juvenile custody population has grown. in 1997 half of all public detention centers were operating above their design capacity.

Problems that might force the issue: Minority youth (10-17 years) are over represented in custody facilities. In 1997 they made up 34% of the population as a whole, but 62% of the detention population.