Discussion 2: Annotated Bibliography

3

Theories of Delinquency

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Learning Objectives

After studying this chapter, you should be able to accomplish the following objectives:

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On Friday morning May 18, 2018, a 17-year-old student armed with a shotgun and a revolver entered his high school 30 miles southeast of Houston, Texas, and killed 10 people. Of those killed, eight were students and two were teachers. The gunman entered a classroom and began shooting. He reportedly taunted students in the room who were hiding and showed no remorse during the shooting. After the event, students who knew the shooter offered a mixed account of his personality and motive. Some suggested he was the subject of bullying and was a loner; others said he was a typical kid and didn't show any outward signs of impending violence.

What sets this mass school shooting apart from others of recent times is that the gunman surrendered to the officers who confronted him. Capturing the shooter may enable us to understand his mindset as communities are left grappling with many questions. Why would someone enter a school and inflict such violent destruction? How does someone so young even gain access to the weaponry? How can someone so young carry out acts so unthinkable and gruesome?

Another important question is whether violent behavior develops spontaneously or is due to specific factors. Although the perpetrator was 17, it is hard for many people to conceive that he woke up one day and simply became a murderer. Rather, many theories argue that criminal behavior emerges from a variety of circumstances and situations that develop over time. Explaining delinquency requires us to simultaneously examine juvenile delinquency and adult criminal behavior. As such, the theories that we will discuss in this chapter often apply to both adults and juveniles.

Define criminology.

Explain the classical and neoclassical theories

of crime.

Summarize early biological and psychological

theories of crime.

Analyze modern biological and psychological

theories of crime.

Describe sociological theories for

understanding crime.

Evaluate how crime is understood according to

learning theory perspectives.

Explain how social bonding theory helps us to

understand crime.

Evaluate the role society plays in criminal

behavior.

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4

Crime Across the Life Course: Risk

and Protective Factors

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George Layton's exposure to the criminal justice system began when he was just 16 years old. At that time, he was arrested for grand theft and sentenced to prison. After being released at age 23, he soon continued his criminal path. He planned a robbery with friends that resulted in the murder of the homeowner. He pleaded guilty to robbery with a firearm and received a sentence of 8 years in prison. After his release from prison, he married a woman he described as an addict. He spent the next several years addicted to methamphetamines and alcohol. After that marriage failed, George was involved in an accident that left a woman dead. Although not charged with negligence in the death, he described it as a wakeup call. George started going to church and met a woman who was also religious. George indicates that he changed his ways and now is living a clean life (Smith, 2012).

Learning Objectives

After studying this chapter, you should be able to accomplish the following objectives:

Explain the life course theory and how it can

help inform the age-crime curve.

Analyze the various risk factors for

delinquency.

Describe the various protective factors that

could prevent delinquency.

Evaluate the various trajectories and pathways

used by the life course theory to explain

criminal behavior.

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Focus on the Life Course: Meet Paradize

Paradize has been in Lakeside County Juvenile Center in Indiana three times; she was 13-years-old the first time. Consider the details of Paradize's account as we continue to explore her history and experience with the juvenile justice system throughout this chapter.

4.1 Introduction

Most theories of crime attempt to explain why criminal behavior peaks in adolescence. In other words, the theories attempt to explain the age-crime curve. The age-crime curve shows that age and crime are inversely related: As age increases, crime decreases. In particular, we see that crime rates start to rise in late childhood, peak in adolescence (15–19 years of age), and then decline in the early 20s. However, as Piquero, Jennings, and Barnes (2012) noted, there are differences in this curve related to gender and type of offense. Criminal activity peaks for boys later than it does for girls, and violent crime tends to peak later than does property crime. Criminologists examine the characteristics of adolescents' lives for clues as to who is committing crimes and what crimes are being committed. When formulating theories on criminal behavior, researchers have considered influences such as a lack of bond to parents, exposure to delinquent peers, or stressful experiences.

But not all juveniles follow this typical age-crime curve. In fact, some exhibit delinquent behavior much earlier than is statistically typical and some continue their criminal behavior well into adulthood. Could a theory that rests on exposure to delinquent peers explain why some stop committing crime but others continue? In some circumstances it might; however, criminologists have looked for a more complex understanding of delinquency.

A theory developed in the early 1990s, referred to as life course theory, argues that it is important to examine how individuals develop over time, the circumstances to which they are exposed, and the factors that could influence their path to a conventional (or unconventional) lifestyle (Loeber & LeBlanc, 1990). The idea that behavior develops over time and is influenced by a host of issues is not a new area of inquiry. In fact, developmental psychology and the work of Erikson (1968) and many others have provided the context for understanding this issue. Though not new to psychology, applying a developmental framework is a fairly new approach to criminology that has gained prominence since Robert Sampson and John Laub published a book on the topic in 1993, entitled Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points Through Life.

Criminologists recognize that individuals differ with regard to their propensity to commit crime. Studies support the idea that most juveniles start committing crimes at the same level of seriousness; however, only certain individuals escalate their criminal behavior over time (Loeber & LeBlanc, 1990). Imagine a juvenile who is arrested for vandalism after defacing school property during a prank with friends. The youth's criminal "career" may start and end with that one act

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1. Does Paradize's experience seem to follow the typical age-crime curve for juvenile girls?

of vandalism. By contrast, others may not stop after their first criminal act. A similar juvenile may begin with vandalism but eventually escalate to serious or violent crimes. In an effort to explain these differences, life course theorists rely on longitudinal data. These studies allow researchers to uncover how the patterns of offending emerge over time and what factors may have an impact on behavior.

Certain experiences, relationships, and situations that influence criminal behavior and juvenile delinquency are referred to as risk factors. For example, poverty, peers, substance abuse, personality, and so on are risk factors or correlates of delinquency. Having more than one risk factor makes it more likely that the juvenile will be involved in criminal behavior. For example, juveniles who are friends with antisocial peers (e.g., those who commit crimes) and use drugs and alcohol have a greater likelihood of committing crime. Said another way, they are at a higher risk of criminal behavior.

At the same time, certain factors seem to prevent delinquency. These elements are referred to as protective factors. Protective factors can include the existence of social support, mentors, or positive relationships with parents or other family members. Youth who experience high levels of social support (e.g., family, friends, church, mentors) are less likely to engage in delinquent behavior. The protective factors can also intervene when youth are confronted with adversity such as antisocial peers. But consider the opening story involving George Layton. Factors such as marriage and church can influence whether someone chooses not to engage in delinquency. To understand the factors that influence criminal behavior across the life course, we must first consider the main risk factors and protective factors for crime.

Meet Paradize From Title:

Juvenile Delinquency: Paradize Interview (https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx? wID=100753&xtid=151016)

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Research shows that youth who are frequently truant miss important experiences and are more likely to engage in

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4.2 Risk Factors

There are a number of risk factors or correlates of criminal behavior. Take social disorganization theory as an example. This theory asserts that high rates of crime are being driven by the environment, poverty, and other important ecological factors. The theory identifies poverty as a risk factor for delinquency. Differential association theory asserts that association with antisocial peers is likely to lead to delinquency. The theory identifies antisocial peers as the risk factor. The problem is that each of the theories argues for a different set of risk factors.

It is important to identify the magnitude or importance of each risk factor. In an attempt to identify magnitude, researchers use a technique referred to as a meta-analysis. A meta-analysis is a statistical technique that allows a researcher to examine a body of literature. Much like a literature review that might be conducted when writing a paper, a meta-analysis is a summary. The difference, however, is that a meta-analysis summarizes the results of studies by weighting their importance. The results of a study that utilizes a rigorous design (e.g., random assignment of subjects) will be given more weight (Glass, 1976). Researchers using meta-analysis techniques to study risk factors for crime are able to identify which risk factors are more important. For example, Gendreau, Andrews, Goggin, and Chanteloupe (1992) found that most risk factors they surveyed included lower social class origin (poverty), personal distress/psychopathology, educational/vocational achievement, parental/family factors, temperament/personality, antisocial attitudes, and antisocial associates. The top five risk factors in this list are school, family, personality, attitudes, and peers.

With regard to gender, many of these risk factors are similar but operate differently. Dana Hubbard and Betsy Matthews (2008) suggested that many of the risk factors are important for both groups. For example, consider the risk factor of peers. For boys, antisocial peers are often likely to include similarly aged boys. The boys may be associating with other boys and using drugs and alcohol or committing other delinquent behavior in groups. For girls, antisocial peers may be age-inappropriate boys. How the system responds to the situation involving similar-aged peers versus age-inappropriate peers may differ; however, the core risk factor of peers remains important for both genders.

School-Based Risk Factors

From age 6 through at least age 18, youth spend more of their time in school than in any other activity. School represents an important time in a youth's life not only due to the academic content but also because of socialization experiences. Schools teach youth self-control, discipline, a work ethic, how to get along with others, and how to acquire and process information (Cass & Curry, 2007). These skills serve youth well as they go on to college or out to the workforce. Teachers play an active role in this socialization as well. We know that a good teacher can change a youth's life course, maybe by

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deviant behaviors.introducing a topic or subject area that the youth decides to pursue as a career or by working with a youth on the verge of dropping out of school.

Youth who frequently skip school or who drop out of school miss key experiences that are difficult to recoup. Studies show that youth who are truant (absent) from school are at risk for a host of problems. For example, truant youth are more likely to be involved in gangs, substance addiction, and criminality. Baker, Sigmon, and Nugent (2001) noted the following:

[A]dults who were frequently truant as teenagers are much more likely than those who were not to have poorer health and mental health, lower paying jobs, an increased chance of living in poverty, more reliance on welfare support, children who exhibit problem behaviors, and an increased likelihood of incarceration. (p. 1)

Moreover, police note that youth involved in criminal behavior during the day are typically the same youth who either have dropped out of school or are chronically truant. Studies indicate that chronically absent youth miss, on average, 6 weeks of school each year (Garry, 1996).

Those who drop out of school are also at risk for delinquency. Statistics indicate that nearly 7,000 youth drop out of school each day, and in 2004, over 1.3 million students failed to graduate from high school (Monrad, 2007). Unfortunately, graduation rates are the lowest in urban areas. To illustrate, Table 4.1 shows the graduation rates within the inner-city area of Cleveland, Ohio. The Ohio Department of Education rates Ohio schools based on 18 factors: 16 are related to results from state proficiency exams and the remaining 2 are based on attendance and graduation rates. If we explore Cleveland Metropolitan School District (formerly the Cleveland Municipal School District), one of the poorest districts in the state, we can see that proficiency rates are very low. For example, Table 4.1 shows that only 27% of 8th graders are proficient in math, and only 34% are proficient in science. These numbers are in contrast to statewide rates that are on average higher than 50%. Looking at behavioral indicators such as suspensions, we find that 28% of youth in Cleveland have been suspended, compared to only 11% statewide. Although Cleveland's graduation rate is fairly high, the district has been given an "F" rating by the Ohio Department of Education for not meeting their performance indicators.

Table 4.1: Cleveland city schools versus Ohio schools overall, 2017–2018

Cleveland Metropolitan School District

Ohio overall

Graduation rate 74.6% 84.1%

Percent proficient 8th grade math 27.3% 54.3%

Percent proficient 8th grade science 33.9% 67.6%

Percent proficient 3rd grade English language arts

35.3% 61.2%

ODE rating F —

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From "Cleveland Municipal district overview," in "Ohio school report cards," by Ohio Department of Education, 2018, Retrieved from https://reportcard.education.ohio.gov/district/overview/043786. (https://reportcard.education.ohio.gov/district/overview/043786.)

High school dropouts face a difficult road. For example, Tamborini, Kim, and Sakamoto (2015) estimated that college-educated workers earn 53–55% more than high school–educated workers.

What leads students to be truant or to drop out of school? It is sometimes difficult to tell. Juveniles drop out of school for a host of reasons including family issues, financial problems, bullying, violence, or poor school performance. Research by Roger Jarjoura (1993) examined this issue and found that youth who dropped out of school because they did poorly or did not like school were more likely to be involved in delinquency than those who dropped out for family or financial issues. In fact, recent research suggests that even those who remain in school but are chronically truant have many more later life problems (e.g., unemployment, criminal behavior, and poorer health outcomes) (Rocque, Jennings, Piquero, Ozkan, & Farrington, 2017).

Family-Based Risk Factors

The family is considered one of the most important socializing agents in a youth's life. Families provide care, love, structure, and social support. The family provides the necessary structure during the most critical periods of development. For example, it has been argued that the first three years of life are the most important in terms of emotional well-being and attachment. The bond between caregiver and child can have implications for the child both socially and biologically. For example, research suggests that children who are abused or neglected during this time are more likely to miss key experiences that impact brain development (Cass & Curry, 2007). Moreover, on the extreme end, children can develop reactive attachment disorder, which can lead to difficulty with bonding and relationships later in life (Schechter, 2009). The extreme forms of abuse notwithstanding, the importance of caregiver-child relationships cannot be understated.

Gerald Patterson (1982) studied parenting practices for years at his Oregon Social Learning Center (see http://www.oslc.org (http://www.oslc.org) ). He found that parents who are consistent in their approach to delinquency are less likely to have children with behavioral problems. He maintained that parents who are inconsistent or give in to their children's negative reactions end up encouraging delinquent behavior. Let's take an example of a teenager who misbehaves and whose father punishes him by grounding him without driving privileges. Once the weekend comes along, however, the father relents to the teen's constant requests to attend a social event. Once youth realize that repeated requests will work to reduce the punishment, they will use that behavior again in the future. According to Patterson, the youth in this situation received the message that negative behavior leads to positive outcomes. If this scenario is repeated over time, the youth learns that defiance and manipulation is an appropriate way to react when confronted with rules or authority figures.

The relationship between parenting and delinquency is complex. No family is perfect, and sometimes families that provide all the necessary love and support still have a child who runs into trouble. It is a fine line between readily implicating the family as a cause of delinquency and understanding the complexity of the issue. In other words, when a juvenile commits a crime, particularly a heinous act like murder, everyone is quick to blame the parents, assuming that the parents must have done

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Youth abused by family members may learn that aggression is an appropriate and acceptable response to feelings of anger.

iStockphoto/Thinkstock

something wrong to produce a child capable of violence. However, sometimes even when parents provide a tremendous amount of love and support, children choose a delinquent path. Take our previous example: The parent who gives in and allows the teen to attend a social event is not likely producing a delinquent. It would take repeated exposure to inconsistent parenting to potentially produce a manipulative style in the child. That said, there are important risk factors for delinquency that in fact directly implicate the family. Those risk factors include family violence and abuse, and parent criminality and incarceration.

Family violence and abuse is a significant problem facing children. Family violence can include spousal abuse or child abuse and neglect. Spousal abuse that

does not directly involve the child is as damaging as physical abuse involving the child, given that youth who witness violence in the home are significantly more likely to engage in violence themselves (Cuevas, Finkelhor, Shattuck, Turner, & Hamby, 2013). Here are some facts regarding how violence in the home can affect development:

Children who witness violence in the home are significantly more likely to have trouble concentrating in school and tend to have lower reading abilities. Boys who witness violence are significantly more likely to become batterers themselves. Studies show a significant relationship between spousal abuse and child abuse. For example, children in homes with spousal abuse present are 15 times more likely to be victims of abuse (Volpe, 1996). Abused or maltreated children are at significant risk for later delinquency. Maltreatment can include physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. Studies estimate that nearly half of delinquents report childhood abuse or neglect (Teague, Mazerolle, Legosz, & Sanderson, 2008). These children are over 10 times more likely to be arrested for a violent offense in their lifetimes (White & Spatz Widom, 2003).

How does abuse and neglect work to produce delinquency? The relationship is complex and potentially related to a host of risk factors; however, the abuse itself is important. For example, youth in abusive environments feel powerless to change their circumstances, and they learn that aggression is an appropriate response to frustration or anger. They also often do not receive positive reinforcement or rewards for good behavior. As a result, they are more apt to become abusers themselves or to display aggression in everyday situations.

Finally, parent criminality and the incarceration of a parent are important family-based risk factors. Over half of inmates released from prison have children under the age of 18 at home. A parent's return home after prison can cause emotional and financial stress on the family (Petersilia, 2003), and some families have mixed or conflicted feelings about welcoming the parent back into the family. In

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addition, formerly incarcerated parents often face many structural barriers, such as a lack of housing or employment options, when they return home. The stress and strain experienced by families can further disrupt important bonds between youth and their parents. Finally, parents are important models for their children. A parent's criminal behavior is an important learning experience for the children in the home. (More information on this topic can be found at https://www.youth.gov/youth- topics/children-of-incarcerated-parents (https://www.youth.gov/youth-topics/children-of-incarcerated- parents) .)

Community-Based Risk Factors

As mentioned in the preceding section, families of formerly incarcerated persons often face immense structural barriers. Those barriers can include poverty; homelessness; and exposure to gangs, drugs, and violence. Many theories of crime focus on the role of the environment in producing delinquency. Living in an impoverished area is a source of stress or strain on family members. Youth may feel pressured to commit crime as a means of obtaining wealth or status, resort to violence out of frustration, or join gangs for protection.

As youth age into adolescence, peers become increasingly important. Peers provide not only social support for the youth but also reinforcement for delinquent behavior. Differential association theory asserts that delinquent peers can influence behavior through a process of learning and modeling. In fact, research suggests that many youth do commit delinquent acts with their peers. Studies find, for example, that youth are more likely to use marijuana and alcohol in groups than on their own (Nelson, Van Ryzin, & Dishion, 2015). One question often remains: Do delinquent youth seek out others who are also inclined to commit delinquent acts, or does associating with delinquent peers produce delinquent behavior?

This is particularly relevant when we examine the impact of gangs on violence. A study done by Terence Thornberry (1998) examined whether violent youth were more likely to join gangs or whether the gang itself contributed to the likelihood of violence. The author found that being involved in the gang led to more violence. In fact, statistics show that gang members are nearly 10 times more likely to commit murder (Huff, 1998).

James Howell and Arlen Egley, Jr. (2005) outlined risk factors for youth gang membership and identified several community factors. For example, more disordered neighborhoods that experience high levels of residential mobility are more likely to see a higher gang presence. He also noted that a lack of opportunities for employment and an availability of drugs and firearms are important correlates. Finally, communities that lack cohesion, social capital, and informal controls have higher rates of gang membership. For example, communities that are organized (e.g., neighborhood watch groups, community groups and meetings) are less likely to have higher rates of delinquency. These relationships make sense if we consider that the community often provides the context for delinquency. Some cities are trying to create more organization and cohesion in troubled communities as a way to improve the overall health of their residents and, thereby, decrease crime and delinquency. (To learn about a program instituted in Chicago, see https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cdph/provdrs/healthychicago.html (https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cdph/provdrs/healthychicago.html) .)

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Aggression toward people or animals is one of the six categories of used to diagnose conduct disorder.

MENDIL/BSIP/SuperStock

Individual-Level Risk Factors

Individual-level risk factors are often internal (e.g., psychological traits) but can also refer to the interaction between individual characteristics and the environment. Let's begin by examining one of the most important risk factors for delinquency: antisocial attitudes, values, and beliefs (Andrews & Bonta, 2010). Antisocial attitudes, values, and beliefs are views or beliefs that support criminal behavior. Antisocial attitudes can include blaming the victim (e.g., "She had it coming"), minimizing responsibility (e.g., "I didn't pull the trigger"), or justifying (e.g., "The police are out to get me") or rationalizing the behavior (e.g., "Drugs should be legal"). The notion that how we think influences how we act is the focus of cognitive theory. A youth's belief system drives behavior in a number of ways, but in particular it provides the justification for the behavior. In Chapter 10 we discuss cognitive interventions and their success in reducing delinquency.

Personality factors are also related to delinquency. Impulsivity, for example, is strongly related to delinquency. Impulsive youth tend to be short-sighted and egocentric and to have an appetite for risk taking, a desire for immediate gratification, and a sense of self-centeredness. Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi (1990) developed a theory referred to as self-control theory. They argued that those who are low in self-control are more likely to engage in a host of delinquent behaviors. Low self- control is said to contain six different dimensions: impulsivity, simple tasks, risk seeking, physical activity, self-centeredness, and temper (Grasmick, Tittle, Bursik, & Arneklev, 1993).

A personality disorder in juveniles directly related to delinquent behavior is conduct disorder. Conduct disorder is the precursor to antisocial personality disorder (the diagnosis in adults of those who showed evidence of conduct disorder as a juvenile). Conduct disorder is a behavioral diagnosis with those diagnosed showing repetitive rule violations or disregard for others. Juveniles who exhibit at least three of six established criteria may receive the diagnosis. The four possible categories include (a) aggression toward people and animals, (b) destruction of property, (c) deceitfulness or theft, and (d) serious violations of rules (e.g., truancy, running away before age 13). One of the most important features of these behaviors is whether they are highly disruptive to school, social, or work functioning (Bressert, 2017).

The major concern for youth with a diagnosis of conduct disorder is their disregard for others. This callousness can lead to a host of problem behaviors including their disregard for school performance, parents, and peers. As noted earlier, if the youth continue to exhibit these behaviors into adulthood, it could lead to a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder. Antisocial personality includes characteristics such as aggression, failure to plan ahead (impulsivity), failing to conform to social norms, failure to respect the law, failure to be a responsible parent, or failure to show remorse for bad behavior (Sharp, Peterson, & Goodyear, 2008).

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Youth with an even more disturbing set of characteristics could be labeled as psychopaths. As noted in the Spotlight feature, psychopathy is a personality disorder that includes characteristics such as callousness, lack of empathy, manipulation, and impulsivity. The word psychopathy often conjures up images of serial killers or depraved murderers. However, not all psychopaths are serial killers. Although the number of people diagnosed with psychopathy is fairly small, their impact is significant. For example, studies show that juveniles who have been diagnosed with psychopathy are substantially more likely to be involved in serious crime, they commit crime throughout their lives, they tend to be among the most aggressive and antisocial delinquents, and they tend to be resistant to punishment (Campbell, Porter, & Santor, 2004; Vaughn & DeLisi, 2008).

Spotlight: Psychopathy

There is some disagreement about whether the term psychopath should be applied to children and adolescents. The label has serious implications and potential damaging effects, and there is also less research to support its use. However, studies have confirmed that juveniles can exhibit these qualities. Moreover, the criminal behavior of these individuals tends to be more violent, narcissistic, and impulsive than the behavior of their counterparts. They are also more likely to become criminals and to sustain that criminal behavior into adulthood. Characteristics common to youth falling into this category are listed in the checklist that follows.

Be aware, however, that this checklist is a clinical tool that is used by trained professionals and is weighted and assessed by looking at this list of attributes in relation to other factors. The list is presented here merely to provide a glimpse of what professionals are considering with regard to psychopathy; it is not meant for self-assessment or diagnosis.

Hare Psychopathy Checklist Youth Version Items (Hare, 2012)

Superficially charming Grandiose sense of self-worth Stimulation seeking Pathological lying Manipulation for personal gain Lack of remorse Shallow affect Callous or lacking empathy Parasitic orientation Poor anger control Impersonal sexual behavior Early behavioral problems Lacks goals Impulsivity Irresponsibility Failure to accept responsibility

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Unstable interpersonal relationships Serious criminal behavior Serious violations of conditional release Criminal versatility

A trained clinical expert scores the items in the checklist based on an extensive clinical interview. Each of the items is rated, and the assessment produces an overall score ranging from 0 to 40. A score of 30 or higher qualifies a person for a diagnosis of psychopathy.

What causes these personality disorders? Evidence suggests that they do have biological bases. Personality researcher Hans Eysenck (1996) argued that criminals know right from wrong but prefer the wrong to the right. He asserted that low cortical arousal plays a role. Low cortical arousal is marked by poor stimulation in the lower centers of the brain and therefore causes individuals to act out in an effort to attain greater arousal. Specifically, he theorized that individuals with low cortical arousal seek out arousing and often risky activities that may include criminal acts. Others suggest that psychopaths suffer from brain dysfunction that affects the amygdala, also considered the "emotional center" of the brain. Regardless of its origins, without intervention, juveniles diagnosed with psychopathy are likely to continue on disruptive paths.

As we can see, a variety of risk factors can influence juvenile delinquency. Next, we examine the factors that can prevent delinquency.

Focus on the Life Course: Mental Health and Behavior

Paradize discusses visits to a doctor and her diagnoses, noting that medication and counseling have not helped her. Paradize also attended an anger management class in school, where she had a violent reaction to her teacher and a friend.

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1. What risk factors do you think might help explain some of Paradize's criminal behavior?

Mental Health and Behavior From Title:

Juvenile Delinquency: Paradize Interview (https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx? wID=100753&xtid=151016)

© Infobase. All Rights Reserved. Length: 06:07

6:07

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4.3 Protective Factors

Protective factors are conditions or circumstances that can increase an individual's health and well- being. Protective factors can include a healthy, prosocial belief system; high levels of social support; high self-efficacy; and good problem-solving skills. A prosocial belief system generally refers to an individual's support for being a helpful and productive member of his or her community. Communities themselves can be a protective factor against delinquent behavior. For example, living in a well- organized community with high levels of informal control (e.g., neighbors looking out for one another), resources (e.g., organized activities such as sports, clubs, and organizations), and prosocial opportunities (e.g., part-time jobs, volunteer opportunities) can protect youth from antisocial peers or circumstances. In this scenario, the absence of many of the risk factors already discussed can decrease the likelihood of delinquency. However, the question remains why some at-risk youth choose not to commit crime.

Individual-Level Protective Factors

As we discussed during our review of the risk factors, antisocial attitudes or views are an important predictor of delinquency. Criminal behavior is more likely to occur when people believe that it is acceptable and they can justify it to themselves or others. We could certainly argue, then, that people who hold prosocial values or beliefs are less likely to commit crime. However, when we examine protective factors for delinquency, the issue is slightly more complex. For example, prosocial belief systems are also related to individual traits, such as self-efficacy and good problem-solving skills.

Let's first examine the issue of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy refers to the confidence one has to confront challenges. People who have a high degree of self-efficacy are more likely to believe they can achieve or overcome challenging situations. The confidence in their ability to succeed influences the types of situations or circumstances they choose. People who are confident about attempting challenging situations are less likely to see failure as a sign that they lack talent. Rather, they may be more likely to approach failure as something that occurs naturally but can be overcome by working harder. Youth with low self-efficacy who receive a low grade in school may see that situation as reaffirming their inability to do well. By contrast, youth with high self-efficacy are more likely to believe that the probability of success is high the next time around if they work harder (Schunck, 1990).

Another important protective factor is problem-solving skills. The ability to solve problems is a fairly complex mental process. Like self-efficacy, the belief in one's ability to solve problems is key; however, the skills around problem solving are equally as important. For example, passive problem- solvers tend to approach situations by ignoring the problem or keeping it to themselves. Active problem-solvers tend to seek out support and develop a plan of action to solve the problem. People who use active versus passive forms of problem solving tend to be more successful at reaching their goals (Werner, 1993) and coping better with adversity (see Reid & Listwan, 2018).

Another line of inquiry regarding individual protective factors is the subject of resiliency research. Resilient youth are those who are in high-risk communities or situations, but overcome the odds and refrain from delinquency. Other studies find that resilient youth are also more likely to seek out supports even when family members are not available. That support system may include teachers,

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Positive relationships with and support from family members are important environmental factors that help to protect juveniles from criminal activity.

Keith Levit Photography/Thinkstock

mentors, grandparents, or other relatives who step in to fill the void left by parents who are unable to provide support for the youth (Grossman & Garry, 1997). Regardless, any theory concerning the relationship between risk and crime must also consider that even when individuals are at risk for delinquency, their fate is not sealed. Although delinquency rates are high in impoverished areas, many juveniles do not commit serious crimes. Individual protective factors such as resilience can reduce the blow or impact of the risk factors. (For more on childhood resilience, see https://www.samhsa.gov/homelessness-programs-resources/hpr-resources/childhood-resilience (https://www.samhsa.gov/homelessness-programs-resources/hpr-resources/childhood-resilience) .)

External Factors

Although many protective factors can occur in the environment (e.g., cohesion in schools, community programs), we focus on two important ones: social support and positive family relationships. Francis Cullen (1994) theorized that personal forms of social support reduce the probability of criminal involvement due to the resources they provide youth in dealing with a variety of stresses or strains. Individuals who perceive that others will be there for them in times of need experience less stress and better psychological health. Social support is intertwined with the relationship youth have with their families, friends, peers, communities, and organizations (e.g., church, schools).

Elijah Anderson (2000) identified what he believes are two distinct types of families in the inner cities: decent and street families. He conceptualized street families as those who have succumbed to delinquency as a means to cope with a lack of opportunities. They engage in criminal acts and teach their children to do the same. In contrast, Anderson described decent families are those that teach their children respect, hard work, and self-reliance. These families are considered the working poor, trying to survive through conventional means of hard work and dedication. Another important feature of decent families is the existence of positive relationships or bonds

between family members. Studies consistently find that bonds among family members can reduce the impact of other stressors or environmental risk factors. For example, a study by Demuth and Brown (2004) examined the relationship between family structure and family relationships and found that structure (e.g., having one-parent or two-parent households) is less important than the relationships that exist between parent and child.

With regard to gender and protective factors, research by Jennifer Hartman and colleagues (2009) found that although girls and boys rely on different types of protective factors, the importance of these factors is equal for both. Specifically, they found that religious beliefs and positive school experiences

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In this 2010 photo, Trinity Taylor, 10, works on her homework outside the Blackstone Bicycle Works bike shop in Chicago as Tyjuan Edwards, the shop's youth mentor, stands in the background.

Associated Press

were reportedly more important for girls. However, as a whole, they found that an accumulation of protective factors is equally important for both girls and boys. In other words, the more protective factors youth have, the better they are able to resist delinquent involvement.

A study by Michael Turner and colleagues (2007) found that the protective factors did matter when examining delinquency rates. Researchers examined the delinquency patterns of youth with both risk and protective factors and found that the existence of protective factors influenced delinquency. They also examined whether a particular number of protective factors was needed for this positive effect to occur. The study suggested that delinquency rates were affected when youth had at least three protective factors. They also examined whether certain protective factors (e.g., internal factors versus external ones) mattered more. They did not find that certain protective factors were clearly more important. Rather, simply having multiple factors was important. Although the internal factors we discussed are important, external factors can be equally as important (Turner, Hartman, Exum, & Cullen, 2007).

Featured Program: Blackstone Bicycle Works

6100 South Blackstone Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637-2912 http://www.experimentalstation.org/ (http://www.experimentalstation.org/)

Mission: Blackstone Bicycle Works functions in the context of the Experimental Station's full-service bike shop, dedicated to promoting ecological practices and empowering youth by teaching mechanical skills, job skills, and business literacy to boys and girls from the underserved Woodlawn neighbourhood and Chicago's broader South Side.

Founded by Dan Peterman and Connie Spreen, the Experimental Station is a nonprofit that seeks to meet the needs of the surrounding community by becoming a social and cultural hub. For more than a decade, the Station has developed an array of programs to address local needs in Chicago's South Side, seeking to provide a place where people feel welcome, are free to express their ideas, and can connect with one another in a safe place. The first program to come out of the Experimental Station was Blackstone Bicycle Works, a full-service bike shop that seeks to empower underserved youth.

The premise of Blackstone Bicycle is simple: work for 25 hours, get a free bike. It's not a bad deal but just scratches the surface of all that the Blackstone program promotes. Blackstone operates under a few basic rules, such as no gang business, no cussing, no fighting, respect others, and no play or shop work until your homework is done. At the shop, kids ages 9–16 learn mechanical and job skills, along with the invaluable

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Antwane Pritchett, 10, works on a bicycle with the help of Reginald Graham, 15, in Chicago. Two years ago, Graham put on a bike mechanic's apron for the first time, and something clicked.

Associated Press

lesson that hard work pays off. During the school year, kids come after school to build their hours by replacing chains, rebuilding rusted frames, and fixing tires. Once they have accumulated 25 hours, they are allowed to pick their own bike from the shop's refurbished selection, along with a new helmet and lock. The shop's Youth Apprenticeship program trains teens with more advanced skills in the business side of the shop. After mastering the basics of bike mechanics, the teens become paid members of the Blackstone crew during the summer, helping customers with repairs and helping Earn-a-Bike participants learn basic repairs.

Since its beginnings in 2006, Blackstone has continued to grow and change with the needs of the community. For example, during Blackstone's summer youth program, Connie discovered that many kids were coming to the shop in the morning without having eaten breakfast and without food for lunch. So they started serving a morning meal. But even more important, the shop provides its young participants the chance to belong. Here they are encouraged and supported not only in their trade but in their educa-tion as well. Workers at the shop double as mentors, offering homework help and asking participants about their hopes for the future. For many kids, this shop is home.

To hear from some of the participants and see Blackstone in action, check out the following links:

Blackstone Bicycle Works was the winner of Seattle's Best Coffee's first Brew-lanthropy award in 2011. Check out this video highlighting the shop: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=gnkO9OO0eps&feature=BFa&list=PL6CE3A EF0184A652C (http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=gnkO9OO0eps&feature=BFa&list=PL6CE3AEF0184 A652C) Associated Press news feature—"You can talk to people about your home problems, and they will listen. And they will care": http://www.youtube.com/watch? feature=player_embedded&list=PL6CE3AEF018 4A652C&v=PbOS6YJDqRI (http://www.youtube.com/watch? feature=player_embedded&list=PL6CE3AEF0184A652 C&v=PbOS6YJDqRI) Blackstone Bikes featured on WGN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj8qrW3i6QU

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(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj8qrW3i6QU) New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/us/08cncblac kstone.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/us/08cncblackston e.html)

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Focus on the Life Course: Perceptions and Dreams

Paradize shares what she wants people on the outside to understand about incarcerated juveniles. She also looks forward to a future outside the juvenile justice system.

1. Despite the many risk factors Paradize describes, are there also some protective factors we can identify in her life?

2. Overall, how does life course theory apply to Paradize's experience with the juvenile justice system?

4.4 Life Course Theory

As mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, life course theorists examine delinquency in a different way. Most theories of crime examine the risk factors for delinquency that occur at a specific time in the youth's life: bonds to others, peers, ecological factors. Instead of focusing on adolescence to explain delinquency, life course theorists examine how factors over time coalesce to produce delinquency. For example, a youth may report lacking a positive relationship with a parent at age 15; however, traditional theories do not explore why that relationship is poor and how that relationship did (or did not) develop over time. Parental discipline, concern, support, and consistency may have been lacking in the youth's early development, leading to erosion of a key bond in adolescence.

Life course theorists view individuals as actively responding to their environment. For example, someone who grows up in an abusive environment is influenced by those experiences well into adulthood. The environment shapes how individuals make decisions. The abuse could lead a juvenile to use drugs to cope or to run away to escape. In contrast, another youth may choose to seek out support or work hard in school to escape the abusive environment. The way individuals respond to their environment can lead each person's life in different directions or on different long-term pathways (Sampson & Laub, 1993).

Types of Trajectories

Life course theorists discuss how established risk factors such as school, peers, and changes in

Perceptions and Dreams From Title:

Juvenile Delinquency: Paradize Interview (https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx? wID=100753&xtid=151016)

© Infobase. All Rights Reserved. Length: 06:23

6:24

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lifestyle could put someone on a pathway toward crime. The pathway is also referred to as a trajectory, which is a key factor in life course theory. Someone's trajectory can influence the likelihood that he or she will experience a positive or a negative set of circumstances. The person's trajectory is intertwined with the transitions that everyone goes through on their way to adulthood. Transitions are stages or events that happen during someone's life course or pathway. For example, everyone begins kindergarten at about the same age and progresses through school at similar intervals; similarly, children go through physiological and social transitions as they age.

Trajectories can be positive or negative. Graduating high school is a positive transition, as is going to college or beginning a new promising career. By contrast, a youth who drops out of school, participates in gang activity, and is involved with drugs and alcohol is not only on a negative trajectory but also misses key transitions (e.g., graduating from high school). Missing a key transition inevitably makes it more difficult for the youth to be on a positive trajectory. Youth may also experience what is referred to as a precocious transition. A precocious transition is a life event that occurred sooner than normal. Teenage pregnancy is an example of a precocious transition. Becoming a parent is not traditionally considered a risk factor; however, becoming a parent as a teenager does put that youth at risk for difficulties (e.g., finishing school, entering the labor market). Precocious transitions are hazardous because they could put youth on a negative trajectory (Smith et al., 2000). For example, a teenage parent may find it difficult to remain in school, which will have obvious implications for future employment opportunities.

In addition, life course theory examines how risk factors interact and culminate to increase the risk of delinquency. The interaction is referred to as cumulative disadvantage (Wright, Caspi, Moffitt, & Silva, 2001). Cumulative disadvantage is related to the risk factors we discussed earlier in this chapter. We know that there are a number of established risk factors for delinquency, including family dysfunction, associating with delinquent peers, and addiction. The more risk factors people have in their lives, the greater the likelihood that they will engage in delinquency. Cumulative disadvantage refers to the relationship between the number of negative events or repeated negative events that someone experiences and the likelihood of being caught up in a cycle of misbehavior. A high cumulative disadvantage makes it more difficult for a youth to remain on a positive trajectory. Many studies over the past few decades have confirmed these findings (Sampson & Laub, 2005; Thornberry, 2018).

Persistence

Life course theorists also recognize the existence of stability or persistence for some criminal behavior. Juveniles who continue or persist in criminal behavior beyond adolescence are an important group. Studies show that early onset of delinquency is one of the best predictors of future offending. For example, studies exploring the relationship between early aggressive behavior and the frequency, seriousness, and patterns of crime occurring later in life find a clear and positive relationship between early aggressive behavior and later crime (Stattin & Magnusson, 1989). The studies concluded that aggressive boys exhibited restless behavior and poor levels of self-control, and had poor peer relations as children (DeLisi & Vaugh, 2014; Farrington, 2017).

Terrie Moffitt (2017) explored the relationship between juvenile delinquency and attention-deficit

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disorder in boys from 3 to 15 years of age. Moffitt found that delinquent boys with attention-deficit disorder were most likely to engage in criminal activity, exhibited the greatest family adversity and the worst neuropsychological disorders, and were rated as most aggressive by parents and teachers at age 13. The overall findings indicated that this group exhibited significantly more antisocial behavior and nondisordered controls at every age.

Finally, others found that future juvenile delinquents were more likely to have been rated as troublesome by their teachers, tended to be hyperactive and lack concentration, and tended to be rated as impulsive. At age 18 they tended to engage in violence while drinking, tended to be heavy gamblers, held low-status jobs, or were unemployed with erratic work histories (Farrington, 2005). The early delinquents tended to be more impulsive and had personality traits that were negative.

The concern about chronic offenders is well placed. Studies show not only that chronic offenders are arrested more often but also that chronic offenders commit a disproportionate amount of crime and commit more serious offenses (Loeber & Farrington, 2000). These career criminals represent a fairly small number of offenders (roughly 6–18% of the criminal population), but they do not follow the traditional age-crime curve. They typically begin committing crime at an early age and continue their criminal career beyond their 20s. Although it is clear that most antisocial adults were antisocial children, we cannot say the inverse. In other words, most antisocial children do not become antisocial adults. As a result, life course theorists must explain why some youth desist.

Desistence

Life course theories concede that all is not lost once youth find themselves on a negative trajectory. It is possible, and even likely in most circumstances, that youth can change their lifestyles and get back on a positive trajectory. The concept is referred to as desistence from crime. Desistence occurs when a person stops committing crime in favor of a conventional lifestyle. For many youth, particularly those who are high risk, desistence can come from turning points. Turning points are positive events or relationships. For example, returning to school, successfully completing treatment for addiction, meeting a mentor, reconnecting with family members, or joining a prosocial club or sports organization can have a positive impact on a youth's life. These turning points can help youth bounce back onto a positive trajectory. Consider George Layton in our opening story. In his example, church and a prosocial relationship helped him turn away from a life of crime. Sampson and Laub (1993) recognized that fluctuations in criminal behavior can also result from what they term social capital. Social capital refers to resources that are key to creating trusting relationships with community members. This includes developing resources (mentoring programs, job training) and opportunities for community members. Living in a community that has higher levels of job stability in quality occupations and being involved in quality relationships or marriages can affect an individual's likelihood of continued involvement with crime.

The question remains, how do we explain why some individuals persist in criminal behavior and others desist? Why do some who are faced with adversity desist while others persist? Likewise, why do some who live in a positive environment go on to commit crime? We have established that certain risk factors and protective factors are important in explaining delinquency. The area we have not discussed is how these risk factors and protective factors develop and influence trajectories.

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Early starters often exhibit aggressive behaviors toward others.

Tips Images/SuperStock

What are the pathways for delinquency across the life course? There are two different but similar perspectives. While working at the Oregon Social Learning Center, Gerald Patterson and Karen Yoerger (1993) developed the first typology. Based on longitudinal data collected with youth, families, and teachers, they proposed that there were two avenues or pathways for delinquency. They labeled the two pathways as early starters and late starters. Early starters are youth who begin to exhibit aggressive and antisocial behavior in elementary school with an arrest before the age of 14. Late starters are those who do not show early signs of deviance but have an arrest in later adolescence. The question is whether these two groups can be distinguished.

One of the key risk factors for youth who were categorized as early starters was problems within the family. Parents of early starters found it difficult to control their children. Patterson found that parenting styles seemed to make a difference. For example, these parents were less likely to use appropriate rewards for good behavior and consequences for negative behavior. In fact, he found that parents often rewarded negative behavior. Patterson and his colleagues argued that parents often are not intentionally rewarding negative behavior but instead are giving in to the negative behavior (Snyder, Cramer, Afrank, & Patterson, 2005). For example, a young child who acts out in response to not being given a toy or some other desired object is difficult to manage. The parents can react in one of two ways: endure the tantrum and stand firm or give in to the tantrum and quickly resolve the situation by allowing the child the desired object. As we discussed in an earlier example, Patterson argued that the child will quickly learn to use coercive behaviors to obtain what is desired if the parents give in to the child's demands. As the youth's use of coercive behavior escalates, the parents find themselves overwhelmed by the youth's behavior. In effect, the child's coercive behaviors continue to shape the parents' discipline practices.

For some youth, the pattern escalates to more serious behaviors and eventually to delinquency. As the child grows older, the

absence of rewards for prosocial behavior and the existence of rewards for coercive behavior influences the choices the youth makes in school and with friends. As a result, the coercive behaviors can lead to problems in school and alienation from prosocial peers. The school failure and alienation from prosocial peers could lead the youth to pursue friendships with other antisocial youth. The risk factors culminate in adolescence and carry the youth's delinquency well into adulthood.

Peers are also an important component to Patterson's second pathway, the late starter. Late starters begin committing crime after the age of 14 and typically age out of crime by their early 20s. For these youth, delinquent peer groups act as the catalyst for delinquency. Unsupervised time with delinquent peers, however, is often due to a particular event. For example, Patterson and colleagues argued that something typically happens in these youth's lives to allow for more unsupervised time with delinquent peers. The event may include a divorce, parental incarceration, financial problems, a move,

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or significant family illness. These events influence the family's ability to supervise the youth.

Terrie Moffitt developed a framework similar to Patterson's. She also questioned why certain youth seemed to continue delinquent behavior well into adulthood while others aged out relatively quickly. Moffitt (1993) proposed two groups. The first, called adolescent limited offenders, includes youth who limit their delinquent behavior to adolescence. In contrast, life course persistent offenders are similar to Patterson's early starter group. These youth begin committing crime early in life and persist. Let's look more closely at how each of these groups evolves.

Adolescent limited offenders commit crime as a rebellious act resulting from the maturation gap presented by today's society. That is, youth are physically and mentally capable of achieving adult status; however, they are frustrated by the fact that they are not given adult opportunities until later in life. Moffitt points to changes in our society that have led to this maturity gap. When our society was agriculturally based, youth were given the opportunity to work, start a family, and gain independence at a fairly young age. As society advanced to a manufacturing-based society and now a technologically based society, the opportunity for youth to express their independence was delayed further into adulthood. Their criminal behavior, according to Moffitt, is the result of this frustration. The delinquent acts committed by these youth do not tend to be serious in nature and are often committed with other youth who reinforce the behavior. Once youth begin to mature and are given adult roles and responsibilities (e.g., job, college, marriage), they see conventional life as more rewarding than delinquency.

In contrast, life course persistent offenders continue their delinquent careers. Their criminal behavior tends to continue over time, they commit crimes in a variety of situations, they tend to be aggressive, and their crimes escalate over time. Antisocial persistent offenders are more likely to have neurological difficulties that included impulsivity, hyperactivity, and poor verbal and problem-solving skills. Life course persistent offenders often encountered a cumulative disadvantage that exacerbated their problems. Once these youth are off on the wrong foot, the cycle becomes difficult to break.

The popularity of life course theory is due partly to the recognition that human behavior is complex and that there are many pathways to delinquency. The recognition of both risk factors and protective factors has led to various interventions in the field. Although more research is needed to understand these causal pathways, this area of research is influential.

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Summary of Learning Objectives

Explain the life course theory and how it can help inform the age-crime curve.

Life course theory argues that it is important to examine how individuals develop over time and the factors that influence their path to a conventional (or unconventional) lifestyle. The popularity of life course theory is due in part to the recognition that human behavior is complex and that there are many pathways to delinquency.

Analyze the various risk factors for delinquency.

Risk factors increase the probability of crime behavior. The most important risk factors for delinquency involve school, family, personality, attitudes, and peers.

Describe the various protective factors that could prevent delinquency.

Protective factors are conditions or circumstances that help increase the health and well-being of individuals. Resilient youth are at-risk juveniles who overcome the odds and refrain from delinquency. Resilience has proven to be a powerful protective factor. Other important protective factors include positive relationships with family, a social support system, self-efficacy, and good problem-solving skills.

Evaluate the various trajectories and pathways used by the life course theory to explain criminal behavior.

Trajectories and transitions are related to one another. A youth who is on a negative trajectory may miss important transitions such as graduating from high school. This youth may also experience precocious transitions such as teenage parenthood, which places him or her on a negative trajectory. Cumulative disadvantage can increase the risk of criminality and the likelihood that a juvenile will persist in a delinquent career. Desistence from delinquent behavior is possible and likely in most juvenile delinquents. Different pathways have been suggested to explain persistence and desistence. Patterson and Moffitt distinguish between these groups based on the age at which youth begin committing crime and the circumstances of their lives.

Critical Thinking Questions

1. Antisocial attitudes are a key risk factor. What intervention(s) would you use to change how someone thinks?

2. How can we increase self-efficacy among at-risk youth? 3. Do you have social capital in your life? If so, in what ways did it influence your decision to

go to college?

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4. Using Moffitt's logic, explain how it might be beneficial to require teens to work and start paying bills. Would this increase in responsibility translate into lower delinquency rates? Why or why not?

Key Terms Click on each key term to see the definition.

adolescent limited offenders (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

Offenders who limit their delinquent behavior to adolescence.

age-crime curve (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

Shows that age and crime are inversely related: As age increases, crime decreases.

conduct disorder (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

A juvenile personality disorder that is a precursor to antisocial personality disorder.

cumulative disadvantage

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(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

The interaction of risk factors that culminates in increased risk of delinquency.

desistence (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

The ability to change lifestyles from a negative to positive trajectory.

early starters (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

Youth who begin to exhibit aggressive and antisocial behavior in elementary school with an arrest before the age of 14.

impulsivity (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson

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.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

A personality trait of youth who appear to be short-sighted and egocentric and have an appetite for risk taking, a desire for immediate gratification, and a sense of self-centeredness.

late starters (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

Youth who do not show early signs of deviance but have an arrest in later adolescence.

life course theory (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

A criminological theory that emphasizes the importance of examining how individuals develop over time, the circumstances with which they are exposed, and the factors that could influence their path to a conventional (or unconventional) lifestyle.

life course persistent offenders (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

Offenders who begin committing crime early in life and persist.

meta-analysis (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c

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over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

A statistical technique that allows a researcher to examine a body of literature; a summary of research literature.

persistence (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

Stability or consistency of behavior.

precocious transitions (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

An important life event that occurred sooner than normal, such as teenage pregnancy.

protective factors (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

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Conditions or circumstances that can prevent criminal behavior.

psychopathy (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

A personality disorder that includes characteristics such as callousness, lack of empathy, manipulation, and impulsivity.

resiliency (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

The ability of youth in high-risk circumstances to refrain from delinquency.

risk factors (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

Certain experiences, relationships, and situations that can lead to criminal behavior.

social capital (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book

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s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

Resources that are key to creating trusting relationships with community members.

trajectory (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

In life course theory, a pathway toward crime that can be established by schools, peers, and changes in lifestyle.

transitions (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

Stages or events that happen during someone's life course or pathway.

turning points (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover#)

Positive events or relationships that can bring about desistance.

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5

Juveniles and the Police

Kenneth J. Novak, University of Missouri-

Kansas City

Tina Fineberg/Associated Press

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The Country Club Plaza is an upscale dining, shopping, and residential district in Kansas City, Missouri. Residents and nonresidents frequent the entertainment area, and foot traffic is particularly heavy on Friday and Saturday evenings. The presence of juveniles on the Plaza grew considerably on summer weekends in 2010 and 2011, and carloads of youngsters streamed into the area seeking entertainment. Because of the Plaza's reputation for safety, some parents would drop off their children (many as young as 13) and pick them up later. Kids would call, text, or use social media to get friends to join them at the Plaza.

The unintended consequence was the occurrence of "flash mobs" where large groups of teens would converge on the Plaza. As a result, the opportunity for spontaneous violence increased. Violent, apparently random outbursts occurred during the summer months of 2011 as police estimated between 700 and 900 kids suddenly appeared in the relatively small entertainment district. Business owners expressed frustration as these flash mobs deterred adult patrons from visiting the Plaza on weekend evenings. In response, the police increased the level of officer presence, diverting officers from regular assignments within the urban core and/or paying officers overtime to patrol the area on weekend evenings. This response put a strain on department resources, making it challenging to offer the same level of service to other parts of the city.

In August 2011, the mayor of Kansas City (along with other civic leaders) went to the Plaza on a Saturday night to get a sense of the atmosphere, to speak to people about public safety, and to encourage antiviolence. While the mayor was speaking with citizens, gunshots erupted less than 50 yards away. During the incident, which was unrelated to the mayor's presence, three teenagers were

Learning Objectives

After studying this chapter, you should be able to accomplish the following objectives:

Summarize the extent and nature of contacts

between the police and juveniles.

Analyze the legal rights of juveniles during

interactions with the police.

Explain how and why juvenile status shapes

after discretion.

Explain how juveniles' attitudes toward the

police are shaped.

Evaluate crime prevention strategies used by

police to reduce crime and delinquency,

particularly in school settings.

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shot. Shortly thereafter, a summertime curfew for youth was implemented on the Plaza and for other entertainment areas within the city. This example is not an isolated one or unique to Kansas City, as similar violent youth flash mob events have been reported in other urban areas (Houston, Seo, Kennedy, & Knight, 2012). For example, in 2017 a flash mob of over 100 teens descended on downtown Philadelphia and a year earlier one had gathered on the campus of Temple University. (For more on these incidents, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning- mix/wp/2016/10/26/flash-mob-of-150-teens-attacks-temple-university-students-cops-in-philly (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/10/26/flash-mob-of-150-teens-attacks-temple- university-students-cops-in-philly/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e2c8d81bde39) and https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2017/03/06/philly-police-more-than-100-kids-participated-in- flash-mob-some-arrested/ (https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2017/03/06/philly-police-more-than-100-kids- participated-in-flash-mob-some-arrested/) ).

Hypothesized causes of the Plaza flash mobs of 2010 and 2011 are numerous (e.g., lack of safe, accessible alternative hangout spots for youth; kids wanting to express themselves and be seen where other teens are). The use of social media to create these mobs makes it challenging to prevent them, but like most violence in America, the police are typically the first element of the criminal justice system to intervene and often the group that is immediately held accountable for promoting public safety. This is not a new problem facing the police. In fact, Egon Bittner (1967) said that the role of the police is to address "something-that-ought-not-to-be-happening-and-about-which-somebody-had- better-do-something-now," and often the initial "something" is to increase deterrent presence and/or increase enforcement action. But this also highlights the fact that the police-juvenile relationship is dynamic and historically strained. Juveniles represent a special population with which the police interact, and youth typically harbor less favorable attitudes toward and confidence in the police than their adult counterparts. Understanding this relationship is critical to identifying crime prevention strategies to curb youth violence in America.

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The police force first considered hiring women officers to address juvenile cases based on the classic assumption that women are better suited than men to take care of children.

BlueMoon Stock/SuperStock

5.1 Introduction

Why is it important to understand policing and juveniles? There are several reasons. First, juveniles make up a large proportion of the population with whom the police have contact. From officers' perspective, the laws and policies that guide their interactions with juveniles are often different from those for adults. Second, police are typically the first (and only) officials juveniles come into contact with in the criminal justice system. Police officers serve as gatekeepers, and so the criminal justice process does not proceed unless formally initiated by officers filing a report, issuing a ticket or summons, or making an arrest. Third, early life interactions with police officers can shape future relationships between kids and the criminal justice system (Brown, Novak & Frank, 2009; Goodrich, Anderson, & LaMotte, 2014). Finally, the roles and priorities of the police are different with juveniles. The police must balance their law enforcement role with the importance of helping children (Bazemore & Senjo, 1997).

For example, officers frequently intervene with youth to protect them from harm (such as in abusive family situations) or to prevent them from engaging in delinquency by placing them into child-related services (such as child protective services) (Withrow & Bolin, 2005). Police don't have these same roles in their interactions with adults. As Robert Trojanowicz and Bonnie Bucqueroux (1990) noted, the police have greater responsibilities in protecting and enhancing "the lives of those who are most vulnerable—juveniles, the elderly, minorities, the poor, the disabled, the homeless" (p. xiv). The result is a variety of police procedures, strategies, and programs specifically focusing on juveniles. These include gang intervention, diversion programs, providing schools with resource officers, and early drug awareness and education, to name a few.

Ultimately, when it comes to juveniles, the police need to balance the need for public safety with the need to do what is in the best interest of the child. Juveniles are a "special population" for the police, and often the police don't know what to do about kids. Interestingly, responding to juvenile delinquency is among the priorities that led police departments to hire women officers. Lola Baldwin, the first female police officer, was initially hired to engage with juveniles and women in a social-work capacity. Historian and noted criminologist Samuel Walker (1977) said, "Once the police began to think in terms of preventing juvenile delinquency, they responded to the traditional argument that women had a special capacity for child care" (p. 85).

To help you better understand this relationship, this chapter examines the nature and extent of police- juvenile interactions, highlights legal guardrails within which the police must operate when interacting

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with juveniles, explores officer decision making and discretion, examines juveniles' attitudes toward the police, and evaluates juvenile-focused strategies to prevent crime and delinquency.

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Officers are just as likely to hand out tickets during police-juvenile interactions as they are when they interact with those aged 20– 29, but they are half as likely to arrest juveniles as they are to arrest those in the older age group.

Doug Menuez/Thinkstock

5.2 Contextualizing Police and Juveniles in America

How frequently do police and juveniles interact? What circumstances surround the interactions? And what actions do officers take during those interactions? We can get an idea of the answers to these questions by examining the Police-Public Contact Survey (PPCS). The survey is no longer administered and the most recent data are from 2008, but the trends reported are interesting. The PPCS was sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and was conducted periodically to better understand the context of police-citizen interactions in the previous year. This survey was repeated approximately every three years, allowing an examination of trends over time. A supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey, the PPCS utilized a nationally representative sample of residents ages 16 years and older.

When created, the PPCS focused on understanding interactions during traffic stops (which is the most frequent way in which the police encounter citizens), but important information was provided on other types of contacts between these groups. The survey was not designed to examine police interactions with juveniles under age 16, which represents a limitation given that juveniles below that age also had interactions with the police. Nevertheless, results are still informative because juveniles aged 16–18 are of driving age and are within the age-crime curve, and these interactions help us better understand the nature of police-juvenile interactions.

Frequency of Interactions

According to the 2008 survey (Eith & Durose, 2011), approximately 16.9% of all U.S. residents aged 16 or older (approximately 40 million people) reported having had a face-to-face encounter with a police officer in the previous year. Within these contacts, approximately 331,000 interactions involved an officer and a juvenile (age 16 or 17) during a traffic stop, and another 182,000 interactions involved juveniles reporting a crime or a problem to the police. Another way to think about this is that in 2008, of all U.S. residents aged 16 or older who had contact with police, 13.2% were aged 16–17—an estimate that was down from over 20% in 2002 and 2005. More than 1 in 10 drivers aged 16–19 were pulled over by the police in 2007. Also, of those juveniles who did have contact with the police, 31% had more than one

interaction in 2007. Juveniles were more likely to have multiple contacts with the police than all other age groups, other than those aged 18–24, which are historically the high crime-prone years for individuals (Eith & Durose, 2011).

Characteristics of Interactions

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It is also important to examine what happens during police-juvenile contacts. A more detailed description of dispositions follows later in this chapter, but it appears that police act more informally (meaning warning, advising, or consulting rather than arresting or ticketing) with juveniles than adults. For example, consider the following findings from Eith and Durose (2011):

Juveniles were half as likely as those aged 20–29 to be arrested (2.1% vs. 4.4%) but just as likely to receive a ticket (56.7% vs. 57.1%). Juveniles were slightly more likely to receive a written warning (21.2% vs. 15.5%) but just as likely to be given a verbal warning (9.2% vs. 9.3%). During traffic stops, juveniles were slightly less likely to be searched by the police than were those aged 20–29 years (7.0% vs. 9.0%). Juveniles were searched far more frequently than were those aged 30–39 (4.5%) or 40–59 (2.5%).

The use of force is another area that receives quite a bit of attention. Despite portrayals of the police in popular culture, officers rarely use or threaten to use force during encounters with the public. However, though still rare, youthful suspects are often at greater risk for being involved with police use of force (Terrill & Reisig, 2003). A study that examined use of force between 2002 and 2011 found that an average of nearly 44 million people had face-to-face contact with the police each year. As seen in Figure 5.1, of those people, 32.9 million were white, followed by 4.6 million black and 4.4 Hispanic (Hyland, Langton, & Davis, 2015). Perhaps more illustrative, however, is the percentage of people who experienced use of force during the most recent encounter (see Figure 5.2). According to Hyland and colleagues (2015), "blacks (3.5%) experienced force at higher rates than whites (1.4%) and Hispanics (2.1%). Whites were slightly less likely than Hispanics to experience force" (p. 2).

Figure 5.1: Residents who experienced police contact (in millions) by race or Hispanic origin, 2002–2011

This graph depicts the number of residents with contact with the police who also experienced threat or use of force. Rates of contact involving threat or use of force was highest among whites when examining just the number of incidents.

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From "Figure 1: Residents with police contact who experienced threat or use of force, by race or Hispanic origin, 2002–2011," in Police use of nonfatal force, 2002–11, by S. Hyland, L. Langton, and E. Davis, November 2015, Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/punf0211.pdf (https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/punf0211.pdf)

Figure 5.2: Residents with police contact who experienced force, either threatened or used, by race or Hispanic origin, 2002— 2011

Of the total number of residents who had contact with police, black residents had proportionately higher experiences of force, either threatened or used, than either white or Hispanic residents.

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From "Figure 1: Residents with police contact who experienced threat or use of force, by race or Hispanic origin, 2002–2011," in Police use of nonfatal force, 2002–11, by S. Hyland, L. Langton, and E. Davis, November 2015, Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/punf0211.pdf (https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/punf0211.pdf)

Police Procedures During Interactions

As a result, police organizations often create policies or procedures designed to produce consistency during their interactions with juveniles. In fact, about 90% of all police departments have formal written policies on how officers should interact with juveniles in specific situations (Eith & Durose, 2011). Police organizations are more likely to have formal policies to guide officers' behavior during encounters with juveniles than with other special populations, including homeless persons, persons with limited English proficiency, or immigrants. For example, police departments commonly have separate policies regarding interrogations involving juvenile suspects or policies on interacting with status offenders (i.e., those arrested for drinking, curfew violations, or running away) where the acts, if committed by an adult, would not be criminal. Police departments enact policies specifically to divert status offenders away from criminal processing, instead guiding officers to release juveniles to the care of a parent or guardian and file a report rather than taking the status offenders into custody and booking them into a facility.

When police officers arrest individuals and take them into custody, typically they are booked into a county or regional jail. Jails are commonly a county-level function (run by sheriffs' offices); however, according to Hickman and Reaves (2006), 25% of police departments also have temporary lockup facilities for overnight detention. Adult and juvenile detainees are separated from each other during lockup. Thirteen percent of all police departments also have a lockup facility for juveniles, with a median holding time of up to 16 hours. Interestingly, larger proportions of medium-sized police departments have the capacity to lock up juveniles, whereas very small police departments and very

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large departments are less likely to have such accommodations (Hickman & Reaves, 2006). This is likely the result of larger jurisdictions immediately transporting juveniles to separate juvenile-only facilities. Larger jurisdictions have a larger infrastructure for such facilities, thus having lockup facilities set aside for juveniles is less necessary in those larger jurisdictions. In contrast, medium- sized police departments have less access to such facilities and operate their own temporary lockups for juveniles. This may suggest, among other things, that the propensity to take juveniles into physical custody may be influenced by the availability of separate facilities in which to house this special population.

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5.3 Legal Rights of Juveniles When Interacting With Police

The police occupy a critical role within society in that their activities and decisions must carefully balance the need for public safety and law enforcement with the equally important need to preserve individual freedom and rights. Criminal procedure is the method by which the accused is processed through the criminal justice system (Worrall, 2010). It consists of the rules the government must follow to ensure rights are not violated during this process. All citizens, regardless of age, enjoy certain fundamental rights—freedom from unreasonable searches or seizures, freedom from being compelled in a criminal case to be a witness against themselves, the right to assistance of counsel among them—and these rights are outlined primarily in the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Interpretation and application of these rights are typically found in decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, so understanding the opinion of the Court is critical to understanding criminal procedure.

As a rule of thumb, police interactions with juveniles are similar to their interactions with adults. However, two important aspects specifically related to juveniles are discussed in greater detail here: searches and seizures of juveniles (particularly within public school settings) and interrogations of juveniles after they are taken into custody.

Searches and Seizures

The Fourth Amendment states:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

This amendment indicates that searches (such as for evidence of criminal wrongdoing) and seizures (such as taking evidence or "seizing" an individual through arrest) may not be unreasonable. An arrest is the act of depriving a person of liberty by legal authority, such as by taking a person into custody. The amendment goes on to say that warrants (such as search warrants or arrest warrants) must be based on probable cause. Probable cause exists when "the facts and circumstances within the officers' knowledge, and of which they have reasonably trustworthy information, are sufficient in themselves to warrant a belief by a man of reasonable caution that a crime is being committed" (Brinegar v. U.S., 1949). In other words, probable cause means it is more likely that a crime has been committed by a particular person or that a person or place has evidence that a crime occurred. Cases are continually brought before the courts due to the complexity surrounding the "reasonableness clause" and the "warrant clause"; however, the Fourth Amendment implies that all searches and seizures are reasonable only if based on a warrant supported by probable cause. Evidence seized unreasonably (e.g., without a warrant) may be excluded from court.

A few notable exceptions to the probable cause requirement are unique to juveniles. This is particularly true for searches within schools. For example, school officials may search lockers assigned to students without cause, even if the lockers are closed and locked, because the lockers are

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If a teacher has reason to believe a student is in possession of illegal or dangerous items, the student can be searched without notice. On campus, students must understand that everything is, or can be made, public.

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school property. However, personal effects carried by the student in pockets, purses, or backpacks are a little different. Let's consider a court case to illustrate this point.

In New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985), the Court was asked to consider the admissibility of evidence seized within a school. T.L.O. was a 14-year-old girl who was suspected of violating a school policy (smoking in the girls' bathroom). She denied doing so when confronted by the vice principal. Unconvinced, the vice principal searched the girl's purse and found cigarettes, plus evidence indicating the student was involved in drug dealing, such as rolling papers, cash, and a list of students who owed her money. This evidence was turned over to the police and used against her in juvenile court.

At the time of the search, the vice principal did not have probable cause to believe evidence was in T.L.O.'s purse, which according to the Fourth Amendment should have made the search unreasonable and the evidence excluded from court. However, the Supreme Court viewed this differently, saying that searches by school officials need to be based on "reasonable grounds" that they will uncover evidence. Probable cause or search warrants are not appropriate in these circumstances. Kids in school have a legitimate expectation of privacy, but the school also has a need to maintain a healthy environment in which learning can occur. The legality of a search is based on balancing these two competing needs. In short, school officials do not need probable cause to search students in public schools as long as they adhere to this balance. Had T.L.O. been searched by a police officer on the street with the same type of evidence found, this search would have likely been considered unreasonable and the evidence excluded.

But some searches of students may be unreasonable. Remember that the Fourth Amendment highlights searches of "persons, houses, papers, and effects." T.L.O.'s purse would be considered an "effect," but searches of a "person" may be held to a slightly different standard. A vice principal in the Safford Unified School District #1 received reports that Savana Redding, a 13-year-old middle school student, gave prescription pain pills and over-the-counter drugs to other students at school, which was against school policy. When confronted, Redding denied the allegation and denied having pills on her. As in T.L.O., the vice principal searched her backpack but found no pills. Redding was then taken to the school nurse, who performed a strip search, having Redding remove her clothes and pull aside undergarments and shake them out to see if any pills were being concealed. No pills were found.

Redding's parents sued the school district for submitting their daughter to the potentially embarrassing strip search. The Court held that the nature of the strip search requires the school to demonstrate a higher standard than what was outlined in T.L.O. Although the search of Redding's backpack was permissible, the school had no reason to believe she was hiding pills in her underwear at the time they

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conducted the strip search. The Court ruled that the search was intrusive and invasive, and because it required Redding to expose private parts of her body, it was unreasonable (Safford Unified School District v. Redding, 2009). Such searches are not legal.

The Supreme Court also indicated that school districts may require students to submit to drug testing as a condition of participating in extracurricular activities. In Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton (1995), the Court ruled that schools may enact a policy requiring all students who go out for athletics to submit to a urinalysis (testing of urine to determine whether drugs are in the person's system). They considered that the privacy interests that students have in this circumstance are quite limited and that the school district had a real concern to make sure students were not using drugs that could harm them during their athletic training and events. They went on to say that students could choose whether to participate in school-sponsored athletics—if they didn't want to be drug tested, they simply could avoid this by not going out for sports. Further, the school district ensured that the results of the drug tests would be confidential and used only to determine whether a student was eligible for sports, and that the results would not be turned over to the police. With this in mind, the Court further extended drug testing in a follow-up case of Board of Education v. Earls (2002), which is covered in the feature Spotlight: Drug Testing in Schools.

Spotlight: Drug Testing in Schools

In 1998, the Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County (Oklahoma) enacted a similar policy as in Vernonia. The policy required all middle and high school students to consent to a drug test as a condition for participating in schoolsponsored activities but didn't limit testing to athletes. Students who wanted to participate in activities such as the Academic Team, National Honor Society, Future Farmers of America, Future Homemakers of America, band, choir, pom pom, or cheerleading would be required to complete a drug screening. The policy did not require individualized suspicion, meaning that the school did not need to suspect that any particular student who was being tested was doing drugs.

Students Lindsey Earls and Daniel James, who wanted to participate in activities including show choir, marching band, and academic teams, challenged this policy as being unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches. The Court again ruled in favor of the school district and said that the policy did not violate the students' rights. The Court again noted that students' expectations of privacy are diminished within a school setting, permitting schools to require students to submit to a urinalysis as a condition for participation in any extracurricular activity. Extracurricular activities are "extra"—students are not compelled to participate and thus could avoid drug testing by simply choosing not to participate in activities. The probable cause requirement is unnecessary in public, and schools have demonstrated that searches like this are "special needs" given their interests in maintaining a drug-free school environment. When balancing these interests with the minimal intrusion of the search, the Court deemed this policy to be reasonably balanced.

The decisions in Vernonia and Earls illustrate that although students in public schools have

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some privacy, the school district has a compelling interest in maintaining a drug-free environment such that suspicion searches like these are reasonable.

Interrogations

When the police take a juvenile into custody (such as through an arrest), officers commonly question the young person about his or her involvement in criminal activity. Those being questioned while in custody may reasonably assume they are not at liberty to terminate the interview and leave. Interrogations are circumstances when the police ask questions that tend to incriminate the citizen (del Carmen, 2001). When the police interrogate a person in custody, there is a very real possibility of violating someone's rights, so the Court has put procedures in place to make sure people are aware of their rights and have the ability to knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waive them. One of the best-known cases in the history of the Supreme Court is Miranda v. Arizona (1966), and the Miranda decision safeguards people's rights. This section briefly describes Miranda warnings and relates them to interrogations between officers and juveniles.

Ernesto Miranda was a poor immigrant who, during a 2-hour interrogation by the police after he was arrested, admitted to raping and kidnapping a 17-year-old girl. After his conviction, he appealed the case, arguing that his Fifth Amendment protection from self-incrimination was violated. Eventually the Supreme Court considered his case and ruled that the police must take active safeguards to ensure a defendant's rights are not violated during custodial interrogations. The infamous Miranda warnings require the police to advise suspects that (1) they have the right to remain silent, (2) any statement made may be used against the defendant in court, (3) the defendant has the right to have an attorney present during questioning, and (4) if the defendant cannot afford an attorney, then the government will provide one prior to questioning. This is necessary because custodial interrogations are potentially psychologically coercive and deemed unfair. The government must demonstrate that waivers were granted knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily, or testimony may not be used in court. In the decision, the Court was particularly sensitive to the fact that Miranda was poor and likely unfamiliar with criminal justice processing. This is true too for juveniles, who may have limited experience with the police; be unfamiliar with the law, their rights, or how to exercise their rights; and be particularly susceptible to psychological coercion.

All people who are in custody and being interrogated must be advised of these rights. Suspects may choose to exercise their rights, and in that circumstance all questioning must stop. After having been informed of their rights, however, they may choose to waive them. This is particularly important during custodial interrogations involving juveniles. Youthful offenders may not appreciate the consequences of their actions the same way an adult does, and they may not be in the same position as adults to voluntarily waive their rights. As a result, the Court has sought to clarify procedures the police must follow during custodial interrogations with juveniles. Let's examine another case to illustrate this point.

Michael C. was 16 years old when he was taken into custody on suspicion of murder. The police properly advised him of his Miranda rights, at which point Michael C. requested to speak with his

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probation officer. The police denied this request, and he proceeded to make incriminating statements that were later used as evidence against him at trial. Michael C. argued that the denial of his request to speak with his probation officer compromised his Fifth Amendment rights. The Court disagreed, noting that probation officers are not in a position to offer legal advice the way an attorney does. Requesting to speak with a probation officer is not equivalent to requesting to remain silent, and the incriminating statements were made after a voluntary waiver (Fare v. Michael C., 1979). Although juveniles and their probation officers may have a bond and have formed trust between each other, a request to speak with a probation officer is not the same as requesting to speak with an attorney. The police may deny such a request.

There has been recent debate over whether and under what circumstances a juvenile's age must be taken into consideration when determining whether Miranda warnings must be provided. Let's consider another example. The 17-year-old defendant, named Michael Alvarado, was interviewed at a police department about his involvement in a crime. Alvarado was brought to the police station by his parents, but his parents were not permitted in the room during the interview. He was not under arrest at the time, and, after a 2-hour interview, he was permitted to leave with his parents. At no point was he provided Miranda warnings, but he was later arrested in part because of the testimony he provided. Alvarado argued that the police should have taken his age and lack of previous experience with the criminal justice system into consideration to determine whether he believed he was in custody at the time—the police contend that he was never in custody, thus Miranda was not necessary or required.

The Court ruled that the police were not required to take Alvarado's age into consideration. Miranda warnings are required for all interrogations in which a suspect (regardless of age) is in custody—the fact that Alvarado may have, because of his age, thought he was in custody is irrelevant. The Court was concerned that requiring the police to take a suspect's age and experience into consideration would create a less objective standard than the current custody/not in custody standard (Yarborough v. Alvarado, 2004). The Court's decision suggests that a reasonable person in Alvarado's position would have known he could stop the interview and leave the police station.

But this decision was reconsidered in the more recent case of J.D.B. v. North Carolina (2011). J.D.B. was a 13-year-old middle school student who was removed from class, taken to another classroom, and interviewed by four police officers for 30 minutes about his involvement in home break-ins in his neighborhood. He was not advised of his Miranda rights and made incriminating statements during the interview. In an apparent reconsideration of Yarborough v. Alvarado, the Court ruled that indeed the child's age could be taken into consideration. In the Court's decision, Justice Sonia Sotomayor made the following statement:

It is beyond dispute that children will often feel bound to submit to police questioning when an adult in the same circumstances would feel free to leave. Seeing no reason for police officers or courts to blind themselves to that commonsense reality, we hold that a child's age properly informs the Miranda custody analysis. (J.D.B. v. North Carolina, 2011)

While these cases appear to be somewhat contradictory, it is important to remember that the police have a heavy burden to determine whether interviews with suspects are psychologically coercive and could yield violations of criminal procedure. A reasonable 13-year-old being interrogated by adults in a closed classroom may not have realized that he was "free to leave" regardless of whether he was in

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fact free to do so. To avoid constitutional problems, the police would need to keep things like this in mind when interviewing juveniles about their involvement in crimes because youth could challenge the interrogation based on the logic of J.D.B. v. North Carolina.

To review, it is the burden of the government to ensure that suspects in police custody are aware of their rights as outlined in the Miranda decision prior to interrogation. The government must demonstrate that a person knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waived these rights in order to use information from the interrogation in criminal court. The mental and emotional immaturity of many juveniles complicates this, as it cannot be assumed that a juvenile appreciates and understands the consequences of his or her waiver. In other words, how does the government demonstrate a knowing and intelligent waiver when juveniles are involved? Additionally, because these activities can be psychologically coercive for anyone, they may be particularly coercive when juveniles are involved. This presents a paradox for police officers: On the one hand, they are responsible for ensuring public safety and pursuing justice. On the other hand, they must also be guardians of individuals' rights. As a result, many police departments have developed specific procedures for officers to follow during interrogations with juveniles.

Perhaps examining a policy from the Kansas City (Missouri) Police Department (KCPD) is illustrative. The KCPD enacted a specific policy for interrogations involving juveniles (Kansas City Missouri Police Department, 2011). This policy indicates that the family courts (which handle crimes involving juvenile offenders) will accept statements from juveniles only if a deputy juvenile officer (DJO) is present during the interview. Further, these interviews are conducted only in the presence of a DJO and a parent or legal guardian or attorney. If the juvenile does not want to be interviewed, but the parent or legal guardian wants the juvenile to answer questions, then the parent or legal guardian may compel the juvenile to participate. Testimony in this circumstance is admissible in court. However, if the parent or legal guardian does not want the juvenile to answer questions, then the interview must stop—regardless of the juvenile's wishes.

This policy demonstrates several important things. First, it clearly indicates that interrogations of juveniles require the presence of a third party; the officer may not interrogate a juvenile outside the presence of a court representative and a parent, legal guardian, or attorney. This underscores the importance of parental involvement in this critical stage of the criminal justice process. Second, the parent or legal guardian has greater influence on the decision to waive or enact the juvenile's rights. Parents or guardians may actually compel cooperation of an uncooperative juvenile, but they may also stop the process even if the juvenile wants to continue. This policy clearly articulates the parental role during custodial interrogations and also guides officers to take additional steps (beyond what may be required by Miranda and its progeny) to ensure fair and equal treatment of suspects.

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Depending on the seriousness of the case at hand, an officer must apply discretion when dealing with the public and suspects.

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5.4 Exercise of Discretion

How officers interact with juveniles has been the focus of inquiry for decades (Piliavin & Briar, 1964). The actions of police officers are guided by the law and by department policies. However, legal and organizational guidelines are limited in that they cannot possibly anticipate the range of situations officers will encounter or the spectrum of responses available to officers. The police, like all actors in the criminal justice system, enjoy a considerable amount of discretion in their day-to-day dealings with the public. Discretion is the ability of the police to make choices regarding whether they should intervene with citizens and how they should intervene. Discretion has been described as "whenever the effective limits on his power leave him free to make a choice among courses of action or inaction" (Davis, 1969, p. 4). Officers may choose to act informally (such as making requests of citizens, instructing them to do something, negotiating, peacekeeping, advising, warning, or threatening), or they may act formally (filing a report, making a referral to the court, arresting a suspect, issuing a summons or a ticket, or using force). Despite their portrayals in popular culture and TV dramas, police do not exercise their arrest authority that often, even when they are legally able to do so.

Because police are gatekeepers to the criminal justice system, researchers have focused heavily on understanding whether and under what circumstances officers act in a formal manner and exploring whether the police exercise their authority in a fair and consistent manner. Every interaction between the public and officers is significant because the manner in which the officers act (in addition to their decisions) leaves an impression on citizens. Some researchers have attempted to quantify the amount of authority officers exercise within citizen interactions. Though the discussion in the rest of this section focuses on factors identified as related to the level of formality or "vigor" (Klinger, 1997) during police-citizen interactions, it is also important to highlight the various discretionary choices that officers have.

Each police-citizen interaction is unique in its own respect, and no two are identical. However, some generalizations can be made regarding how different factors influence street-level officer behavior. There is evidence that officers' use of authority is shaped heavily by legal factors, such as seriousness of the crime or the weight of the evidence that a person committed a crime (National Research Council, 2004). This makes sense because officers are more likely to arrest a person that they suspect committed a more serious offense. But officers have considerably more latitude when enforcing the law for relatively minor offenses. For minor offenses, such as traffic violations, disturbing the peace, trespassing, curfew violations, truancy, and so forth, officers feel freer to act informally. Recall the flash mob story at the beginning of this chapter. Before implementation of curfews, the police had few formal options to deal with kids who were just "hanging out." The response was often informal and emphasized peacekeeping—to make sure nothing escalated to violence. After the curfews were

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enacted, police could arrest juveniles, albeit for a relatively minor offense.

Additionally, discretionary choices may be influenced by extralegal factors, such as citizens' race, social class, gender, demeanor or hostility, level of intoxication, perceived mental status, relationship to the victim, and so forth. Juvenile status is among these extralegal factors. Layered into this may also be the characteristics of the neighborhood's level of disadvantage (e.g., high-crime vs. low-crime area), time of day, whether there is a complainant, whether bystanders are present, and characteristics of the officer (e.g., race, gender, rank, level of education, length of service, personal orientation). Many different factors shape all decision making, and how discretion is influenced can be a complicated discussion. Although some controversy and debate remain among researchers and policing scholars on how and why certain factors shape behavior, it appears that a person's age does shape decision making.

Why does officer decision making differ for juveniles? Donald Black (1976) argued that youth occupy a lower social status than adults within American society. This lower social status would tend to suggest that, all else being equal, officers would act more formally and enact the law with greater vigor during encounters with juveniles than they would with adults. Officers may feel free to treat juveniles with more punitive sanctions (e.g., arrest) than they would with adults.

For example, according to Jerome Skolnick (1966), officers identify "symbolic assailants" as those who represent potential danger to officers, and thus may elicit a more vigorous or punitive response from officers. Skolnick argued that in addition to a person's actual observed behavior, officers take cues from their dress, language, community characteristics, gender, race, and age. Each of these may be a risk factor that can influence an officer's conscious or subconscious decision making. Citizens who have multiple extralegal risk factors (e.g., young, black males) may differentially experience police authority. Additionally, juveniles may be more prone to be noncompliant with officer requests (McCluskey, Mastrofski, & Parks, 1999) and less fearful of officer authority (Muir, 1977). Implicit bias among police officers as a prediction of their interactions with minorities has been the subject of intense scrutiny and debate lately.

Robert Brown and colleagues (2009) examined whether officers make different discretionary decisions during encounters with juveniles compared to adults. To do this, they used information gathered from over 440 observations (i.e., ride-alongs) of officers in a large urban city to examine the influence of factors that shape decision making, including the ones just outlined. Of citizens who were identified as suspects, a larger proportion of juveniles were arrested (22%) than adults (15%), causing the researchers to conclude that juvenile status was significantly related to the exercise of police authority. Juveniles encountered in communities with greater levels of distress and disadvantage (e.g., high levels of poverty, racial heterogeneity, rental units, and single-parent households) were significantly more likely to be arrested, meaning it is important to know that where juveniles and police interact does influence the juvenile's disposition. Brown and colleagues also reported an interesting but complicated result regarding what happens when juveniles are disrespectful toward officers.

Most research suggests that disrespectful and hostile citizens are met with more authoritative officer responses. Disrespectful juveniles are in fact not more likely to be arrested; however, they do experience higher levels of police authority (e.g., verbal confrontation, threats). Brown and colleagues (2009) explained, "Disrespectful behavior from a juvenile may, in an officer's opinion, warrant some

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limited corrective action, but arrest may be too severe. This finding may also be an indication of some form of leniency towards juveniles" and officers "did engage in greater levels of authority. It is likely the case that officers recognize juveniles may be less able to appreciate the consequences of their disrespectful actions, [and] thus are less willing to sanction the juvenile with a formal arrest" (p. 206). In this way, juveniles are still held responsible for their disrespectful behavior; however, officers are "sanctioning" juveniles in a more informal manner. Officers do not ignore or condone disrespectful behavior and seek to correct the wayward youth through their discretionary decisions to apply greater levels of informal authority. All of these dynamics are different for interactions with juveniles than with adults, which strongly indicates that street-level officers engage juveniles in subtle but significantly different ways than they do adults.

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The juvenile often represents a perplexing, difficult case for the officer. Teenagers often view police with more suspicion and negativity than adults, making it imperative that the officer presents a positive image of authority to youth.

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5.5 Juveniles' Views of the Police

It is particularly important to understand juveniles' attitudes toward the police. Maintaining positive relationships with citizens is important for police departments for at least three reasons: First, people with negative attitudes toward the police are less likely to collaborate with the police and will be generally distrustful of them. This distrust makes it difficult for citizens and police to come together on public safety priorities and strategies. Second, when people who have negative attitudes come into contact with the police, there is a greater likelihood of conflict. Citizens approach individual interactions with the police with cynicism and mistrust and will be more likely to be hostile and uncooperative, leading to more physical conflict. Third, unfavorable attitudes toward the police can compromise public safety. People with negative beliefs are less likely to call the police when problems occur, less likely to serve as witnesses at court, and less likely to contact police even when they are the victims. This is particularly true for juveniles, who typically have less favorable attitudes toward and are less supportive of the police than are adults.

What influences citizens' attitudes toward the police? Decades of research have identified four consistent factors:

The nature of previous contact with the police (negative contacts produce less favorable attitudes) Race (racial or ethnic minorities express less favorable attitudes) Neighborhood (citizens in disorganized communities have less favorable attitudes) Age (youth have less favorable attitudes) (Brown & Benedict, 2002)

Youths' personal characteristics, environment, and previous experiences with the police heavily shape their attitudes toward the police (Geistman & Smith, 2007). One study surveyed middle school kids and found that those who did not feel safe in their neighborhoods were more likely to hold negative views of the police, as were those who had contact with law enforcement (Sanden & Wentz, 2017). Whether juveniles feel they are treated fairly by the police is critical.

Procedural justice is the feeling of being treated fairly by officers and being treated in an even- handed manner by officers who are doing their law enforcement duties. It makes sense that positive experiences with officers promote positive attitudes, and negative interactions exert the opposite effect. But negative experiences are more influential; a negative encounter with an officer is far more damaging than a positive encounter is beneficial. It takes many good experiences with an officer to

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undo the damage done by a single bad experience. Additionally, Hurst and Frank (2000) noted that observing interactions between the police and others has a strong influence on juveniles' attitudes as well. This means that the police need to be aware of how they interact with juveniles or in the presence of juveniles in order to improve (or at least not damage) relationships and to enhance police legitimacy. This also means that police training needs to include how their actions are being interpreted during encounters with (or in the presence of) juveniles.

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5.6 Police Interventions and Prevention Strategies

Street gangs, drugs, and violence often go hand in hand, and gangs represent an important focus for the police. In 2012, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention estimated there were over 30,700 gangs with 850,000 members in the United States. Though the prevalence of gang-related problems has decreased since the mid-1990s, gang-related homicides increased 20% from 2011 to 2012. The National Gang Center estimates that about 41.4% of all gang members are under 18 years old, thus a disproportionate number of gang members are juveniles. Gangs are not just an urban problem; in fact, gangs in smaller cities and rural areas are more likely to be composed of juveniles than gangs in big cities (Egley, Howell, & Harris, 2014).

What is a gang? Criminologist Malcom Klein (1995a) offered this commonly recognized definition: Gangs have a commitment to a criminal orientation, members identify themselves as a gang, there is group cohesion, and the group maintains a sense of territoriality. A common response to the gang problem has been to create a special unit within the police department that focuses specifically on gang violence suppression (Katz & Webb, 2006).

Gang-Based Interventions

It's important to see how a gang-based intervention works. Boston's Operation Ceasefire program sought to address youth and gang-related violence using a focused deterrence strategy. This strategy was innovative for at least three reasons. First, implementation involved not only the police but also other criminal justice agencies (including probation, prosecutors, federal law enforcement, and juvenile corrections), community representatives, and school officials. These groups often need to work together to identify and address the common problem of gang violence. Second, Boston's Operation Ceasefire relied on focused deterrence, through which police and others contact people who are most at risk for violence, communicate the consequences of criminal actions, and offer incentives to avoid criminal behavior (Braga & Weisburd, 2012). Third, Operation Ceasefire involved problem solving and crime analysis. This approach is necessary to fully understand the nature of youth gang violence in Boston or anywhere gangs are present, as well as to identify those who are likely to engage in violence and intercept them with the deterrence message early. Often those youth identified as being at risk for violence are also identified as gang members. This focused strategy resulted in reductions in youth homicides, calls for shots fired, and gun assaults (Braga, Kennedy, Waring, & Piehl, 2001). This program's structure is a model for programs implemented elsewhere and not just for crimes involving youth gang violence.

Another gang suppression strategy involves strategic deployment of officers in high-crime areas, where they actively enforce truancy and curfew laws. The police traditionally ignore such minor offenses because they are not serious in nature. However, the Dallas police, led by their gang unit, use these minor offenses as leverage to target youth and gang members in specific locations. Studies found that this antigang strategy reduced gang-related offenses and violence (Fritsch, Caeti, & Taylor, 1999). The High Point Drug Market Intervention provides another example of a program dedicated to reducing gang-related crime (see the Featured Program box).

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Featured Program: High Point Drug Market Initiative

https://www.highpointnc.gov/450/Drug-Market-Initiative (https://www.highpointnc.gov/450/Drug-Market-Initiative)

Mission: To reduce drug-related crime in the most violent section of the city of High Point, North Carolina.

The Intervention: This focused deterrence intervention works to identify the highest risk people, notifying them that they are at risk for arrest, and then deliver services as needed. The High Point Drug Market Initiative allows for a select group of offenders to receive a "second chance" with assistance from their family and the community. The assistance takes many forms, including the following:

Day care Employment Family assistance Housing Job training Parenting skills Substance abuse treatment Transportation

Studies of the initiative showed a significant reduction in violent crime in the areas targeted with this intervention (Corsaro, Hunt, Hipple, & McGarrell, 2012).

Effective strategies for reducing gang-related crime typically involve a variety of approaches. Police strategies that rely on a single approach (like making more arrests or increasing the number of officers on patrol) typically do not impact crime. However, using multiple approaches, using multiple agencies, and strategically focusing resources on at-risk individuals or in at-risk locations appears to produce more crime prevention. This is possible only through careful planning, crime analysis, understanding local youth and gang violence problems, and implementing police strategies accordingly.

School Resource Officers

Street-level officers come into frequent contact with juveniles, and the nature of these contacts plays an important part in shaping kids' views of policing and the criminal justice system. Encounters that happen on the street can be dynamic, unpredictable, and uncontrollable. Officers and juveniles are frequently thrown into contact when, as Bittner said, something ought not to be happening (see the chapter opening). In an effort to bring officers and juveniles into contact in a more controlled and

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nonconfrontational environment, police departments and schools districts continue partnering to address crime and delinquency among America's youth (see Figure 5.3). The idea is that cops and kids can form positive bonds in a school-based setting, and officers encourage crime prevention and divert juveniles from delinquency. School resource officers (SROs) "employ a community policing approach and work in collaboration with school and community-based organizations" to deliver law enforcement, counseling, mentoring, teaching, and advising within school settings (Reaves, 2010, p. 28). Over 13,000 officers were assigned as SROs in 2007, and 38% of all police departments in America have full-time sworn officers assigned as SROs (Reeves, 2010). In 2007, the Department of Justice stopped collecting data on the number of SROs in schools; however, the National Association of School Resource Officers (n.d.) estimates that between 14,000 and 20,000 SROs are currently in service nationwide. SROs pay particular attention to curbing activities that are of greatest importance to schools and juveniles, including bullying, drugs, gangs, and violence.

Figure 5.3: Percentage of public schools with security staff present at school at least once a week, by school level, type of security staff, and enrollment size, 2015–2016

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1Primary schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not higher than grade 3 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 8. 2Secondary schools include both middle and high schools as well as combined schools. Middle schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not lower than grade 4 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 9. High schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not lower than grade 9 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 12. Combined schools have any combination of grades (including K–12) that is not defined specifically as primary, middle, or high school.

From "Figure S1.2: Percentage of public schools with security staff present at school at least once a week, by school level, type of security staff, and enrollment size: School year 2015–16," in Indicators of school crime and safety: 2017, by L. Musu-Gillette, A. Zhang, K. Wang, J. Zhang, J. Kemp, M. Diliberti, and B. A. Oudekerk, March 2018, Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018036.pdf (https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018036.pdf)

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School resource officers may spend half of their time maintaining security on school campuses, but the rest of their time is dedicated to mentoring and teaching youth in the school system.

John Wickline/Associated Press

To accomplish this goal, SROs engage in a variety of tasks. Typically SROs spend their time on three general tasks. First is law enforcement, including patrolling school grounds to issue citations or generally deter delinquency and violation of school rules. Most SRO programs report that law enforcement is their primary responsibility, and typically SROs spend half their time on law enforcement (approximately 20 hours per week). Second, SROs engage in advising or mentoring. SROs can serve as positive role models for young students. This includes providing information to students and school faculty and staff, and SROs spend about 10 hours per week doing this. Third, SROs engage in teaching. This can include offering popular prevention programs such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) or Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T); however, they may also teach topics such as sexual harassment policy, babysitting, criteria and consequences for driving under the influence, and other aspects of law. Though some teachers initially expressed reservations about having officers teach curriculum beyond these programs, over time many have become increasingly comfortable with the officers carrying out a teaching function. SROs typically spend about 5 hours per week on teaching (Finn & McDevitt, 2005).

But there is also great variation in SRO responsibilities across different schools and different environments. It also seems that programs evolve by focusing on one role but then shifting toward a different emphasis. A national assessment of SRO programs reported that some SROs spent nearly all of their efforts on law enforcement, while other SROs spent a considerable amount of time on mentoring. Each of the

surveyed locations differed in terms of which of the core SRO roles they emphasized. This variation is likely influenced by the level of crime and disorder in the school and surrounding neighborhood, the personality skills of the SRO, the wishes and culture of the school, the level of the school (i.e., middle vs. high school), and the level and quality of training the SRO has received (Finn & McDevitt, 2005). There may be no one ideal balance across these three roles, and police departments and schools may need to figure out for themselves through trial and error which should be emphasized.

Are SRO programs effective? Answering this question is difficult, but SROs in general seem to yield positive results. Some research suggests that the level of trust in the police increases over time because of the SRO program. Results indicate that smoking and possession of cigarettes as well as gang activity decrease over time too. Students report more favorable attitudes toward the police in general because of the SRO program, and this trust is related to both the individual officer and the police department in general. Students and parents alike report less fear of crime because of the SRO. Students who have more frequent conversations with SROs are also more likely to feel comfortable reporting crime to the police. In fact, students who have positive opinions of the SRO are two and one-

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half times more likely to feel comfortable reporting crime. Students with positive opinions of the SRO feel safer at school (Finn & McDevitt, 2005). Additionally, Theriot (2009) noted that schools with SROs had lower arrest rates for serious crimes like assault or weapons charges but higher arrest rates for minor offenses such as disorderly conduct. It may be that while the SRO deters students from engaging in serious delinquency, their constant presence at schools puts them in a position to "catch" students engaged in more petty activities. It is unlikely that the SRO "causes" students to engage in more disorderly conduct; rather, this behavior previously went undetected and therefore unpunished.

School resource officers often coordinate resistance skills training, which "involves a set of ideas dealing with recognizing problematic situations and issues, dealing with peer pressure, recognizing pressure from media presentations, knowing proper responses to temptations, building self-esteem and assertiveness, and knowing how and when to take a stand" (Lab, 2010, p. 245). Two of the most widely implemented resistance skills training curriculums are D.A.R.E. and G.R.E.A.T. Much more research has been conducted on these two programs for a few reasons. First, D.A.R.E. and G.R.E.A.T. are nationally implemented programs, and local jurisdictions apply and compete for funding to support programs in their schools. One condition for continued funding is that local jurisdictions must demonstrate not only what activities they are performing but also the impact of their program. This encourages local schools and police departments to track and monitor progress, in part to leverage ongoing support but also to learn what works (and what doesn't) locally. Second, because D.A.R.E. and G.R.E.A.T. are implemented nationally, criminologists have been particularly interested in determining the impact of these efforts overall and understanding whether goals are achieved in some locations (but not others) and among some youth (but not others) with an eye to continually improving the resistance skills training everywhere.

D.A.R.E.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) was created in 1983 by Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates. It is a school-based drug-education program led by police officers that focuses on awareness of drugs and teaches students how to resist drugs and violence. It is the most popular program of its kind. Millions of students have completed D.A.R.E. training since its inception, and nationally D.A.R.E. receives over $200 million of public funding annually and is delivered in over 70% of America's school districts as well as 44 other nations. Its curriculum is delivered to students from kindergarten through high school. Though initially designed to address illegal drug use (including tobacco and alcohol), some programs have been enhanced to include bullying, cyberbullying, gangs, and Internet safety (D.A.R.E. 2009 Annual Report, n.d.).

D.A.R.E. is very popular; however, rigorous evaluations call into question the program's effectiveness (West & O'Neal, 2004). Criminologist Dennis Rosenbaum has conducted many of the evaluations of D.A.R.E. and draws the following conclusions: D.A.R.E. has some positive effects on students' knowledge of drugs, attitudes toward drug use, social skills, and attitudes toward the police. However, these positive effects are relatively short-lived—they are typically gone in 1 or 2 years, suggesting D.A.R.E. is not a long-term strategy to prevent students' drug abuse. Moving beyond attitudes, D.A.R.E. has little impact on actual drug resistance. Rosenbaum (2007) concludes:

[The] D.A.R.E. program does not prevent drug use in the short term, nor does it prevent

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Research indicates that antidrug and antibullying programs, like the ever-popular D.A.R.E., do increase students' prevention awareness, but the effects of the programs are hardly long lasting. The average retention span is 1–2 years.

iStockphoto/Thinkstock

drug use when students are ready to enter high school or college. Students who receive D.A.R.E. are indistinguishable from students who did not participate in the program. (p. 817)

Why, despite the evidence that suggests D.A.R.E. does not accomplish its stated goals, does it remain so popular? Unlike many crime prevention or treatment programs, D.A.R.E. has a large national organization behind it, which has been very successful in leveraging political and financial support for the initiative. D.A.R.E. minimally intervenes into the lives of students: Since the 17-week D.A.R.E. curriculum is delivered during school hours, students do not have to partake in any programming outside of school. There is an attractive component to bringing cops and kids together in nonconfrontational ways that should foster positive relationships between these groups. D.A.R.E. is positioned to promote a positive and healthy school environment, which parents and administrators appreciate. There is recognition too that the preceding benefits are worthwhile pursuits even if the stated goals of D.A.R.E. are not achieved; in fact, many people acknowledge that they never really expected D.A.R.E. to "work" as claimed, because the problem of drug use in America is so complex. Furthermore, many observers dismiss the research findings as not being relevant for their school districts, noting that their D.A.R.E. officers are more skilled or more involved than similar programs nationally (Birkeland, Murphy- Graham, & Weiss, 2005; Lab, 2010). Perhaps D.A.R.E.'s persistent popularity is the result of the program's being subjectively perceived by stakeholders and clients (like parents and school administrators) to be effective, which is more influential than the objective empirical research findings about its effectiveness.

G.R.E.A.T.

The Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program, typically delivered by SROs within school settings, focuses on gang and delinquency prevention. It was created in 1991 by Phoenix-area police departments and was adopted on a national level shortly thereafter. The curriculum is directed primarily toward middle school students. Focusing on skill development to recognize and resist high-risk situations for violence and resisting getting involved with gangs or gang-related activities, the program encourages nonviolent conflict resolution. The stated goals of G.R.E.A.T. are to help kids avoid gang membership and violence and criminal activity, and to develop positive relationships between kids and police (Esbensen, Peterson, & Taylor, 2009; Lab, 2010).

Early evaluations of G.R.E.A.T. yielded modest long-term results, and in 1999–2000 the program underwent significant revision. The curriculum was expanded from 9 to 13 weeks, and interactive teaching techniques in a skill-building, strengths-based approach were incorporated along with lessons

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that focused on known risk factors for gang membership (Esbensen et al., 2011). The revised program is referred to as G.R.E.A.T. II.

Criminologist Finn-Aage Esbensen has led or been involved in the most extensive and rigorous evaluations of whether G.R.E.A.T. works. Unlike research on other school-based programs such as D.A.R.E., his research has demonstrated encouraging results. Among other things, students in G.R.E.A.T. were 39% less likely to join a gang one year after completing the program, and G.R.E.A.T. significantly improved juveniles' attitudes toward the police. Students completing G.R.E.A.T. were less likely to be influenced by peer pressure, had better refusal skills, were less involved with delinquent peers, had less favorable attitudes toward gangs, and expressed lower levels of self- centeredness and anger (Esbensen, Peterson, Taylor, & Osgood, 2012). This is important because, along with achieving some of its stated goals, G.R.E.A.T. also influenced known risk factors associated with gang membership and violence. However, G.R.E.A.T. students did not demonstrate lower levels of violent offending. These results are more positive than those reported for D.A.R.E., though there has not been as much time and opportunity to closely examine the G.R.E.A.T. program. Evaluations are ongoing.

More recently the role of the SRO in schools generally has been called into question. A number of studies have suggested that having police officers in school could increase the chance that youth will experience formal processing in the juvenile justice system. For example, although programs like D.A.R.E. and G.R.E.A.T are used to provide education and training, the presence of SROs to monitor school safety and behavior has led to an increase in referrals for formal processing. This has led to concern that SROs create a school-to-prison pipeline. Studies suggest that the presence of SROs led to feelings of safety among some students and families but at the same time increased arrest rates for minor offenses like disorderly conduct (Theriot, 2009). The concern is exacerbated by a disproportionate increase in arrest rates among minority youth and those with disabilities (see Petteruti, 2011). At the same time, in the wake of school shootings, others have called for an increase in SRO presence on school campuses. These two approaches to managing school safety are at the heart of the current debate on how to keep students safe from harm.

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Summary of Learning Objectives

Summarize the extent and nature of contacts between the police and juveniles.

Juveniles present a special population with whom the police interact frequently. Police must balance their law enforcement role with their role in helping children. Despite portrayals in popular culture, officers rarely use or threaten to use force during encounters with the public. Even so, youth are at a greater risk for being treated with force by police. Police organizations often create policies and procedures designed to produce consistency during their interactions with juveniles.

Analyze the legal rights of juveniles during interactions with the police.

The legal rights of juveniles are very similar to adults'; however, some differences exist related to searches and seizures and interrogations. The Fourth Amendment does not apply to juveniles to the same extent as it does adults.

Explain how and why juvenile status shapes officer discretion.

Evidence indicates that officers make discretionary decisions when interacting with youth. Officers' use of discretion is shaped heavily by legal factors, such as seriousness of the crime or the weight of the evidence that a person committed a crime. Discretionary choices may also be influenced by a number of extralegal factors, including citizens' race, social class, gender, demeanor, perceived mental status, and juvenile status. Juvenile status has been found to be significantly related to the exercise of police authority, and often harsher treatment. One explanation for this finding is that juveniles typically hold a lower status in society.

Explain how juveniles' attitudes toward the police are shaped.

Factors that shape perception of law enforcement are the nature of previous contact with the police, race, the neighborhood in which one resides, and age. Juveniles tend to have less favorable attitudes toward the police than do adults.

Evaluate crime prevention strategies used by police to reduce crime and delinquency, particularly in school settings.

Gang-based interventions tend to work best when using multiple approaches, using multiple agencies, and strategically focusing resources on at-risk individuals or in at-risk locations. Student resource officers in general seem to yield positive results, though the results depend on many factors and are not conclusive. Resistance training programs, such as D.A.R.E. and G.R.E.A.T., are popular collaborations between police and schools. These programs are used to provide education and training to resist delinquent behavior. Thus far, G.R.E.A.T has reported better overall results than

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D.A.R.E.

Critical Thinking Questions 1. Do you think juveniles should have different legal rights than adults? If the Supreme Court

relaxes some Fourth Amendment protections because it believes that schools have a compelling interest to maintain drug-free environments, then shouldn't drug testing be extended to all public school students? Why or why not?

2. Under what circumstances should officers favor their law enforcement role over their helping role?

3. What steps should police administrators take to improve attitudes of juveniles toward officers?

4. Why has D.A.R.E. not reduced drug resistance among participants? How can D.A.R.E. be improved?

Key Terms Click on each key term to see the definition.

arrest (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over#)

The act of depriving a person of his or her liberty by legal authority, such as taking a person into custody.

criminal procedure (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over#)

The method by which the accused is processed through the criminal justice system.

custody (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson

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.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over#)

The situation where those being questioned by police would reasonably assume they are not at liberty to terminate the interview and leave.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over#)

A nationally implemented program in which police departments partner with local school districts and officers encourage crime prevention and divert juveniles from delinquency.

discretion (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over#)

The ability of the police to make choices regarding whether they should intervene with citizens and how they should intervene.

focused deterrence (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over#)

A situation in which police and others contact people who are most at risk for violence and communicate the consequences of their actions and offer incentives to avoid criminal behavior.

gangs (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book

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s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over#)

Groups in which members have a commitment to a criminal orientation, members identify themselves as a gang, there is group cohesion, and the group maintains a sense of territoriality.

Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over#)

A nationally implemented program similar to D.A.R.E. that focuses on gang activity.

interrogations (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over#)

Circumstances in which the police ask questions that tend to incriminate the citizen.

probable cause (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over#)

A situation in which the facts and circumstances within police officers' knowledge, and of which they have reasonably trustworthy information, are sufficient to warrant a reasonable belief that a crime is being committed.

procedural justice (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over#)

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The feeling of being treated fairly by police officers and being treated in an even-handed manner by officers who are doing their law enforcement duties.

resistance skills training (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over#)

A set of ideas dealing with recognizing problematic situations and issues, dealing with peer pressure, recognizing pressure from media presentations, knowing proper responses to temptations, building self-esteem and assertiveness, and knowing how and when to take a stand.

school resource officers (SROs) (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1 /sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson .5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/book s/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/cover/books/Johnson.5439.18.1/sections/c over#)

Police representatives assigned to provide education and other services within particular schools; a component of partnerships between police departments and school districts intended to address crime and delinquency among America's youth.

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