dissusion board questions
How is Delinquency Measured?
JD: Causes and Control (2)
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Method of measurement impacts conclusions about delinquency
Three major ways to measure
1. official statistics
2. self-report data
3. victimization data
3 Major Ways of Estimating Extent of and Trends in Delinquency
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Official statistics
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primarily arrest data from police compiled by the FBI and reported in Crime in the United States: The Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)
FBI Crime Reports provide various data on crime
1. number of crimes known to the police
2. number of crimes cleared by arrest
3. number of people arrested and characteristics of those arrested
Clearance and arrest data provide information on extent of delinquency and trends in delinquency
Official Statistics – The UCR
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Part I offenses
1. eight relatively serious violent and property crimes
Violent Crimes (Crimes Against People):
Murder, rape, robbery**, assault
Property Crimes
Larceny, burglary, arson, MVT
2. FBI reports crimes known to police and clearance/arrest data
**NOTE: Robbery is a violent and a property crime
Part One (Index Crimes)
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Part II offenses
1. twenty additional offenses
Simple assault, curfew offenses, loitering, embezzlement, forgery, counterfeiting, disorderly conduct, DUI, drug offenses, fraud, gambling, liquor offenses, family offenses, prostitution, public drunkenness, runaways, sex offenses, stolen property, vandalism, vagrancy and weapons offenses
2. FBI only reports arrest data
Part Two
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Age: only 20% of crimes are cleared by arrest – little is known about the age of offenders in most crimes
Race: white youths make up the majority of arrests.
Black youths are overrepresented in violent crimes
Residence: often used to determine social class – not enough info to be accurate
Gender: females make up 25% of juvie arrests
Offense rate: # of offenses per 100,000
What Do They Tell Us?
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1. represent approximately 95 percent of the population
2. provide long-term information on trends in crime
3. provide moderately accurate measures of certain types of serious crime
Advantages of Official Statistics
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most delinquent acts do not become known to police (“dark figure of crime”/ reporting is voluntary)
only about one-third of all crime victimizations reported to police
many crimes do not have victims
difficult for police to detect crimes on their own
2. offenders are usually not caught by police
3. suspected offenders are often not arrested because police have discretion over whether to arrest
4. police sometimes make mistakes and report inaccurate data to FBI
Disadvantages of Official Statistics
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5. police sometimes deliberately distort crime data reported to FBI
a. “unfound” crime reports
b. reclassify crimes from more to less serious categories
6. only report most serious offense for which person is arrested (hierarchy rule)
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summary
a. arrest data greatly underestimate extent of delinquency, especially minor delinquency
b. arrest data may be misleading in estimating trends in delinquency
(1) reported victimizations may increase over time
(2) police departments may encourage more arrests
(3) police reporting may become more accurate
Juvenile Court Statistics:
Picture of cases and juvies who reach the adjudication stage
Courts handle more older youths than police
Older youth have more extensive problems/ involved in more serious offenses
Other Official Sources – Juvenile Court Statistics
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Juvenile Corrections Statistics
Official source of info on juvies in correctional facilities
Racial differences visible bt public and private facilities
Private facilities choose clients
Wealthier families can afford costs of private facilities
Bias on part of courts to send more minority youth to public facilities (more punitive)
Public facilities focus more on delinquent offenses
Private focus more on statuses offenders, abused, neglected and voluntary admissions
Other Official Sources – Juvenile Corrections Statistics
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Self report data
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Attempt to gauge delinquency by asking individuals about their involvement in deviant activity
Methodology
1. juveniles asked about extent of their delinquency
2. usually focus on delinquency committed during previous year
3. usually anonymous or confidential
Self Report Data
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Major advantage is that provides estimates of all delinquency committed by juveniles
Can ask Q about why offenders commit offenses
Can probe # of times an offender commits each offense
Can probe more on background – richer info
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Includes more serious offenses
Resulted in less ppl being delinquent and gave results similar to official stats
Does survey each year
Found a great deal of delinquent activity – most everyone was delinquent
Interviewed same set of youth repeatedly over a period of time
Examples
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Age: juveniles tend to commit less serious offenses than adults
Race: data from MTF and NYS show little difference in offending bt races
Social class: slightly greater # of lower class youths commit involvement in crime – difference in small
Gender: males report higher rates than females
What do they tell us?
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Truthfulness of juveniles on self-report surveys
1. researchers use variety of methods to estimate accuracy of self-report data
comparisons with official records
comparisons with peer, family, or school reports
use or threat of lie-detector tests
comparisons with drug tests
comparisons between groups known to differ in their level of delinquency
2. research suggests data are moderately accurate
juveniles reasonably honest
minor level of underreporting for serious offenses
Truthfulness and Self Report
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1. difficult to estimate trends because few long-term nationwide surveys
2. underestimate extent of serious delinquency
respondents sometimes underreport serious delinquent acts
measures often focus on minor offenses and have vague response categories
report trivial acts
under sample most serious delinquents
Problems with Self Report
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new methods such as “Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Administered Interview”
better measures of delinquency
accurate counts of number of delinquent acts committed
focus on both minor and serious offenses
larger samples of juveniles
effort to eliminate trivial acts from delinquency counts
effort to include serious offenders in sample by oversampling juveniles in neighborhoods that have high delinquency rates .
Overcoming Problems
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Victimization data
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National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) administered by federal government
1. sample includes people ages 12 and older in approximately 50,000 households throughout the United States
2. respondents asked if they have been victims of several types of crime
3. respondents asked to provide information on their victimizations
Victimization Data
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1. provides information on crimes reported and unreported to police
2. provides information on experiences and characteristics of crime victims
Advantages
1. focus on only a few types of violent and property crimes committed ages 12 and older
no information on drug use and status offenses
no information on crimes committed against businesses, such as
no information on crimes committed against persons under age 12
2. undersample certain groups with high rates of criminal victimization
Problems
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3. crime victims may not report victimizations to interviewers
do not report because embarrassed, do not remember, or offenders members or acquaintances
effort to increase reporting includes change in wording of survey
4. victim does not see offender, especially likely for property crimes
City X experiences a 20 percent increase in the juvenile arrest rate. List all the factors that might account for this increase, other than a real increase in the rate of juvenile delinquency.
A researcher estimates the extent of delinquency in the United States by administering a self report survey to a random sample of high-school students throughout the country. Will the estimate produced by the researcher will be accurate.?
Questions
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