According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice, an estimated 2.27 million juveniles (people under the age of 18) were arrested in 2001. This number represents a decrease of 20 percent from 1997 to 2001 and of 4 percent from 2000 to 2001. Most of the juveniles who were arrested were males, and were 15 or older. The only cat…
The OJJDP publishes statistics on juvenile court cases (Juvenile Court Statistics, 1999, Washington, D.C., 2003) and on juvenile cases sent for trial in adult criminal court. The OJJDP categorizes juvenile crimes in two ways: FIGURE 5.2 Age-specific violent crime arrest rates per 100,000 population, 1980, 1994, and 2001 FIGURE 5.4 Juvenile arrest rates for forcible rape, 1980–2…
Many people believe that some crimes are so terrible that the courts should focus on the type of offense and not the age of the accused. From 1987 to 1993, there was a dramatic 65 percent increase in the rate of arrests of juveniles for murder. The homicides were overwhelmingly concentrated among black teenagers in the nation's largest cities. Rates of other violent crimes, like rape, robbe…
Status offenses are law violations for which an adult cannot be prosecuted (runaway, truancy, alcohol possession, ungovernability cases, etc.). From 1990 to 1999, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention publication Juvenile Court Statistics 1999 (2003), liquor law violations accounted for 42 percent of status offense cases for 17−year-olds, followed by runaway…
For many decades, civil liability laws held parents at least partly responsible for damages caused by their children. Also, child welfare law included actions against those who contributed to the delinquency of a minor. By the 1990s, in response to rising juvenile crime rates, communities and states passed stronger laws about parental responsibility. Several states have enacted laws making parents…
Critics of curfew ordinances argue that they violate the constitutional rights of children and parents. First, Fourth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights, they argue, are endangered by curfew laws—especially the rights of free speech and association, privacy, and equal protection. The critics also argue that no studies have proven the effectiveness of curfew laws. In 1994 the Supreme Co…
Although gangs have been a part of American life since the early eighteenth century, modern street gangs pose a greater threat to public safety and order than ever before. Many gangs originated as social clubs. In the early twentieth century, most street gangs were small groups who engaged in delinquent acts or minor crimes, such as fighting with other gangs. By the late twentieth century, however…
Schools and neighborhoods can be dangerous places for many young Americans. Knives, revolvers, and even shotguns turn up in searches of school lockers. News reports describe incidents of children being shot on playgrounds or of youths firing rifles as they cruise the streets in cars. The use of deadly weapons in violent incidents has increased fear among citizens of all ages. According to Stuart G…
As reported in Indicators of School Crime and Safety 2003 (jointly published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics, 2004), in 2001 students 12 to 18 years of age were the victims of approximately two million nonfatal crimes of violence or theft at school. There were 32 school-related violent deaths in the United States from July 1, 1999 through June …
According to the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement Databook (U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile and Delinquency Prevention, 2002), on October 27, 1999, some 108,931 juveniles were confined in residential custody facilities in the United States. Residential placements include both public and private detention, correctional, and shelter facilities. Of the 104,237 delinquents (…
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