Juvenile crime is a form of crime conducted by a person who is under the legal age of adulthood which results to juvenile arrests. While much has been hypothesized on the scope of juvenile arrest, which have increased significantly in the recent past, poor parenting is the most comprehensive factor that has precipitated the rise of this concern. Children lacking a complete family tend to be the victims of these crimes as they lack role models in their lives. These crimes have been witnessed in various parts in the world and they vary in nature (Paludi, 2011). Some of these crimes include murder, robbery, forcible rape, motor vehicle theft, aggravated assault, burglary, property crime and violent crime. The severities of these crimes are treated differently. This case will summarize the rate of juvenile arrests that have been recorded in the United States of America up to 2008. The records are presented to the FBI by security agencies and are analyzed through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program to provide the statistics annually. This statistics are used to monitor the rise or decline in criminal activities over the years. It is from this approach that these crimes can be monitored and reduced by establishing their causes and implementing measures to counter the menace in juveniles.
These crimes are recorded in varying dimensions and occurrences. For one, reported arrest statistics depend on the number of arrests made annually and not the number of individuals arrested because people may be arrested with similar crimes. This is because a series of crimes can be conducted by the same person and result to just a single arrest. It is common for this kind of crimes to occur because juveniles are more likely to commit a crime in a group as compared to adults. Annually the most common type of crime is identified among the many forms of crimes and its cause established (Paludi, 2011). Clearances do happen as result of age consideration of a juvenile or failure of victims to cooperate. This is also put on record in the process of collecting data for statistics analysis.
Juvenile arrests have varied over the years with some annual reports indicating both rise and decline of these arrests. However the rise or decline differs from one crime to another in these reports. In mid-2000s, juvenile arrest rate for murder declined as compared to other years like 1993 when it was at its peak. It declined by a big margin of 77% an outstanding record compared to yester years. Juvenile murder arrest rate growth which had begun in 2004 was interrupted in 2008 and it fell to 6% over the past year to 74% way below its peak in 1993. Robbery arrests on the other hand declined 8% percent by 2008 as compared to the late 1980s when it was at its peak. Juvenile arrests in burglary fell by a big merging of 27% reflecting the greatest decline in 2008 compared in 1980 (Slowikowski, 2009). Therefore the overall juvenile arrests decline was significant in 2008 than any other year in history.
Offences of drug abuse and other simple assault crimes were also on the rise. Drug abuse violations were had increased by a percentage of 145% in 1990 and 1997. However this rate declined to 28% in between the years of 1997 and 2008. The 2008 was by far the most significant year in the decline by a rate of 78% compared to the 1990 rate. Racially, the juvenile drug arrest rate over 1980-2008 peaked in 1997 for the whites as compared to the blacks, which peaked in 1995 (Slowikowski, 2009). Arrests for simple assault increased by 156% between the 1980 and 1997 in most parts compared to other years. Juvenile arrest for simple assault was greater in 2008 than in 1980 rate for most racial groups.
These arrests of juveniles had serious implications on females and members of ethnic and racial minorities. These implications are expressed in the number of blacks who got involved in juvenile crimes as compared to other racial groups across the years. The white’s cases varied in different years compared to other ethnical groups. This is evident in the number of crimes that have been analyzed in the article.
Violent crimes arrests varied over the years in different genders (Paludi, 2011). Arrests of female’s juveniles increased as compared to male juvenile arrests which are proved in the analysis of this article. Agencies of law enforcement made 629,800 arrests of females who were less than 18 years of age. In some simple arrests and larceny theft increased for females while the cases of male arrests decreased with a reasonable merging. Differences in gender also occurred in cases of assault arrests for adults as well as its shown in the article analysis.
The current article provides a substantive platform in which assessments aligned with tracking of juvenile detentions as a means of articulating the magnitude of juvenile crimes. Data is collected as per the populations of juvenile cases by the law enforcement agencies and presented to the FBI for analysis. However this information might not be a representing the entire state and therefore can be biased to some extent. The number of juvenile arrests cases for the recorded years since the beginning of the analysis up to 2008 as recorded might not have covered all the areas completely therefore cannot be termed as all accurate (Slowikowski, 2009). This analysis gives us just a good reliable outlook of how juvenile crimes and arrests have been occurring over the years. It thus makes aware of the fact that juveniles can indulge in crimes despite of their age, gender, ethnicity and race and therefore we cannot brush the fact that crime can start at a tender age as opposed to most peoples believes.
References
Paludi, M. A. (2011). The psychology of teen violence and victimization. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger.
Slowikowski, J. (2009). Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Office of Justice Programs and Delinquency Prevention, pg. 1-11.
