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| Navigate to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service website (https://www.ncjrs.gov/) Go to the Site Search box Enter the following: Juvenile Arrests 2008 Bulletin. Read the “Juvenile Arrests 2008” bulletin by Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Resource: National Criminal Justice Reference Service article “Juvenile Arrests 2008”. Write a 700–word paper summarizing the key points of the “Juvenile Arrests 2008” article. Address the following in your paper: •The overall decrease in juvenile arrests. •The increase in drug offenses and simple assaults. •Implications for juvenile females and members of ethnic and racial minorities. •The increase in arrests of juvenile females and the decrease in arrests of male juvenile offenders for violent crimes. •An assessment of tracking juvenile arrests as a method of measuring the amount of and trends in juvenile crime. Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines. |
Answer
Juvenile Justice System and Processes
Contents
Introduction
The National Criminal Justice Reference Service article “Juvenile Arrests 2008 explains at length processes affiliated with the juvenile justice system while using the year 2008 as a reference point. Juvenile arrests are a very delicate issue in society as they relate to young people below the age of eighteen within the population. The article addresses aspects of specific crimes that the juveniles were arrested for in addition to gender aspects in juvenile crime.
Summary of the Article
Every year, the law enforcement agencies give a cumulative report of the number of people arrested. These arrests are often grouped according to age, gender, type of crime and the intensity of the crimes committed. In the year 2008, the cumulative report focusing on the young population of ages up to eighteen shows that there was a 3 percent decrease in juvenile arrests as compared to 2007 (Puzzanchera, 2009). It also goes on to indicate that the number of violent crimes arrests made associated with juveniles has been decreasing in 2006 and 2007. According to the report, violent crimes arrests decreased by 2 percent in the year 2008 (Puzzanchera, 2009). It also notes that despite the overall decrease in juvenile arrests, other offence categories recorded an increase.
Moreover, the report shows that since 1980, there was a steady increase in drug offences and simple assaults with the peak being in the late 1990s. By 2008, a general decline in these two specific offense categories was noted. However, female juvenile arrests have been on a general increase. These statistics are unsettling especially because there is a stereotype that indicates that males are more inclined to commit such offences. Comparing the crime offence rates between the males and females between 1980 and 2008, the statistics show that female arrest rates for simple assaults and drug abuse tripled while that of the male arrests nearly doubled (Woolard, Harvell & Graham, 2008). This not only proves that the crime rate among females is on the increase, but also, that more males than females are getting reformed. One possible reason for this development is because males tend to feel more susceptible to arrests than females.
The report also addresses the subject from the perspectives of ethnicity and race. In the United States, the juvenile population comprises of the whites, blacks, Asians, American Indians, and many other minority groups. In 2008, the percentage composition of each of the aforementioned racial categories was 78%, 16%, 5% and 1% respectively (Puzzanchera, 2009). Tallies of all the violent crimes associated with juveniles indicate that black youths were the most arrested with a percentage of 52 of the whole population. White youths made up 47 percent of the arrested juveniles while the Asian and American Indian youths comprised only 1 percent each of the population. According to the report, statistics for other offense categories like property crime indicate that they are more likely to be committed by black youths. For example, 65 percent of the juveniles arrested over property crime were black youths in areas where 33 percent of the population was made up of whites. This is why the black youths tend to be automatically associated with violent crimes as opposed to their white counterparts (Esbensen & Winfree, 1998).
Generally speaking, juvenile arrest rates for violent crimes declined considerably between 1994 and 2008. In 1994, the violent crimes offense was most recorded with highs of up to a million recorded arrests for every age group younger than forty. By 2008, these arrests had reduced considerably recording a 40 percent decrease compared to 1994 (Puzzanchera, 2009). Similarly, juvenile arrests showed a 37 percent decrease over the same period of time. It is also worth noting that over the years, the female juvenile arrests involving violent crimes increased while that of the male youth decreased considerably since the 1994 peak.
Tracking juvenile arrests to measure the amount of juvenile crime and the trends in this type of crime is an efficient way of keeping up to date with the current data reports on crime. These arrest rates are usually obtained by tallying the youth arrests that have been made in a specific year and the number of juvenile youths living in an area. The number of juvenile arrests is then divided by the total population. However, there is a limitation in that the number of juvenile offenses committed by juveniles below the age of ten years is normally unrecorded because it only forms 1 percent of all juvenile arrests. Though this is a small inconsistency, it is bound to affect the calculated rates by a significant percentage.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is important for the law enforcers to understand that they should not use the information provided in this article regarding the general decline in juvenile crime rates as a justification for complacency. On the other hand, it is wrong to associate black youths with violent crimes automatically, or white youths with property crimes. Race should never be used as a basis for determining complicity in juvenile crime. Lastly, going by recent trends there is likely to be a decline in juvenile arrests over the next couple of years.
References
Esbensen, F. A., & Winfree, L. T. (1998). Race and gender differences between gang and non-gang youths: Results from a multisite survey. Justice Quarterly, 15(3), 505-526.
Puzzanchera, C. (2009). Juvenile Arrests 2008. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.
Woolard, J. L., Harvell, M. P. & Graham, P. D. (2008). Anticipatory injustice among adolescents: Age and racial/ethnic differences in perceived unfairness of the justice system. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 26(2), 207-218.
