Juvenile Crime Statistics

Studies on relationship between race and delinquency primarily focus on two groups, African Americans and Whites. Applicable arrest data reports that African Americans are disproportionately involved in delinquency, with larger differences for serious crimes. Recent analysis has indicated that these race differences have declined in recent years. Criticism of these studies note that crimes committed by African Americans may be more likely to come to attention of the police and that African Americans offenders are more likely to be arrested than their white counterparts. Early self-report data found little or no relationship between race and delinquency. Later self-report studies found that African Americans and whites commit similar levels of minor delinquency, while African Americans are more likely to engage in serious delinquency, but not to extent reported in arrest data. The studies attributed the discrepancy to a larger percentage of high-rate African Americans offenders than high-rate white offenders. Victimization data suggests that African Americans are more likely than whites to be both offenders and victims of violence. Race and social class explain some but not all of the factors contributing to serious delinquency (Wright and Younts, 2009).

The Black youth is over represented at every stage in the United States juvenile justice system. Ten years ago, Black youth were more than two times more likely to have a delinquency case before the juvenile court than white youth. Dr. Shook and Dr. Goodkind examined three possible avenues to prove if black youth, are more likely to be detained than similarly situated white youth. “Three possible avenues have begun to be examined—the first is related to youths’ attitude and character as assessed by justice system personnel, the second is related to judgments about adequate parental supervision and/or school and work involvement, and the third is related to what some have called ‘‘justice by geography.’’ To conclude Dr. Shook’s and Goodkind findings, Black youth are treated

Juvenile Delinquency has increased throughout the years. In 2008 the United States police arrested about 2.11 million juveniles. Juvenile arrest rates had increased in 2005 and again in 2006. Data show increases in some offense categories but declines in most. Most changes being less than 10% in either direction. According to the data arson at 47% is one of the biggest crimes that juveniles commit. Following are robbery at 27%, burglary at 27%, and property crimes at 26%. Juveniles are creating more problems for parents, schools, and communities. In 2007 juvenile courts dealt with a large amount of juvenile delinquents. About 4,600 cases per day were being treated at the courts (Puzzanchera, Charles).

In order to understand the nature of the statistical disparity, the first aspect that must be examined is necessarily the statistics themselves. Recent data (1998) shows that more than two out of every three arrested persons are white (67.6%) and that African Americans account for only 30% of all arrests. More striking is the data adjusted per capita: African Americans are two and a half times as likely to be arrested as whites, and are even more over-represented in violent crimes, for which they are over three times as likely to be arrested. African Americans are five times as likely to be arrested in cases of robbery or murder (Walker et al., 39).

Often times, people in America understand that minority youths are excessively represented in the justice system. Unfortunately, this occurs at every level of the justice system. Not only does it occur in from initial contact with the police, it continues through incarceration. In many cases, young juvenile minority are being discriminated, they come from corrupted developing countries with high levels of crime, and the majority of white youths are from wealthy families.

Additionally, African Americans and other minorities are more likely to be arrested by policemen due to their race. Many government officials believe race is tied up with crime, and they make assumptions based off the color of the offenders skin (Jost 7). In the twenty first century, one out of fifteen people incarnated were African Americans (Miller 1). Not only are minority adults more likely to be arrested, but also minority children targeted by police officers (“Justice on Trial” 4). Even though studies have shown that caucasian and minority youths have been dealing drugs at the same rate, African Americans and other minorities are more likely to be arrested for the crime (“Justice on Trial” 4).

• Offenses by blacks are more likely to lead to arrest than those of whites. While the self reported involvement of adolescent males represents a 3:2 black/white differential, the arrest

In America minorities have been over represented as offenders in the criminal justice system for years. DMC that is prevalent in the criminal justice and juvenile justice system is one that was discovered and has been discussed for decades. In 1988, over 20 years ago, the NCSJJAG reported that, “…disparate juvenile and criminal justice rates for minorities are not a new phenomenon.” (NCSJJAG, 1998), and unfortunately this phenomena still exists. In 2010, African Americans comprised 17% of all juveniles, but 31% of all arrests in America,” (Puzzanchera, 2013), and the disparities are also quite apparent in the Latinos. When one compares the rates of racial disparities to the rates of overall juvenile crime rates, the racial disparity rates have remained steady

More than half of the United States prison population is made up of African Americans and Latinos, this is nearly twice as their accumulated representation within thirty percent of the general population. As these minorities continue to be put in jail, the rates of racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system also continue to stagger. Crime commission, arrests, convictions, and sentencing are all apart of the many stages within

A 2001 study by Dorfman and Schiraldi found that crimes against African Americans were underrepresented in reporting and overrepresented as perpetrators, white victims tended to receive more lengthy coverage as well. In Los Angeles television news African Americans were 22% more likely to be shown on TV committing violent crimes than non-violent ones despite the fact that arrest reports indicate that African Americans in Los Angeles commit both types of crime almost equally (Dorfman & Schiraldi, 2001). The study also shows how youths are also disproportionately covered: 7 out of 10 local TV news stories dealing with violent crime in California had youths as the perpetrators despite the fact that youths commit only 14.4% of violent crime in that state. Furthermore, half of the stories dealing with minors for any reason involved violence even though only 2% (though due to unreported crimes the actual number may be higher) of California youths have been victims or perpetrators of violent crime (Drofman & Schiraldi, 2001). This increased focus on youth crimes has led to increased support for treating juvenile offenders as adults and, especially in instances of more serious crimes, applying the same retributive punishments previously not applied to young offenders (Glassner, 1999, p. 73). These findings show how not only are the media's sensationalized reporting of crime contributing to a

“Delinquency is defined as the total prevalence of delinquent acts during the past12 months. The delinquency scale was adopted from the delinquency scale currently utilized in the Monitoring the Future Study of United States students that has been ongoing since1975” (Benschop, Harrison, Korf, & Erickson, 2006, p. 67). Race and ethnicity play a significant role in juvenile delinquency. As we grow up we are and become a product of our environment. Race and ethnical background play huge roles in who we are, how we are raised and what kind of life we

This article goes through the disparities in races in comparison to violence. Statistically blacks are six times more likely to die by homicide than white people are (Robert J. Sampson, 2004). That is a significant gap between the two races. The rates of Latino’s have slowly been converging with the whites in more recent years. There are other studies that are based on police statistics that show disadvantaged communities have the highest violent crime rates.

In the study with Ford and Sutphen, when they discussed the characteristics of the juvenile offenders, they were mainly male and white. A disparity exists when it came to the offenders who were African American. “Thirty percent of the offenders were African American compared to 18.3% of the juvenile population in the city; African American youths were over-represented in the population of offenders” (Ford, 2001, p. 63).

“According to the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) for 2003, African Americans (who were 12.7 percent of the population in 2003) were arrested for 37 percent of violent crimes (murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault) and 29 percent of property crime” (Rosich). These statistics are clearly disproportionate to the 13 percent of the population they make up. “In 1993, blacks accounted for 45 percent and 50 percent of adult and youth arrestees, respectively, for murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault” (Sampson and Lauritsen). This is most prominent in robbery, where African Americans make up 62 percent of robbery arrests. The evidence shows that across the board, from petty crimes to more serious violent crimes arrest rates are disproportionate, which African Americans having a higher level of

make 16% of the youth population ages 10-17 in the U.S. 47% of the same crime index