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1997-98 Academy Text Supplement

Chapter 21-4

Juvenile Justice

Statistical Overview

• In September 1997, the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released a Special Report entitled Age Patterns of Victims of Serious Crimes. The Report found that vulnerability to violent crime victimization varies across the age spectrum -- victimization rates increase through teenage years, crest at around age 20, and steadily decrease throughout adult years. This pattern, with some exceptions, exists across all race, sex, and ethnic groups. (Perkins, C. (1997, September). Age Patterns of Victims of Serious Crimes, NCJ-162031, p. 1. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice.)

• Each year between 1992 and 1994, U.S. residents age 12 or older experienced about 4.3 million serious violent victimizations on average. Of all serious violent crimes -- murder, rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault -- the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that while persons age 12 to 24 comprise less than a quarter of the U.S. population (22%), they comprise almost half (49% or 2 million) of all serious victimizations each year. (Ibid.)
• Persons younger than 25 were the most vulnerable to serious violent crime, regardless of how age patterns are analyzed. They made up almost 50% of all persons suffering a serious violent crime and almost 56% of rape/sexual assault victims. (Ibid., p. 2 & 3)
• Persons age 12 to 24 comprised: 35% of murder victims and 49% of serious violent crime victims. Persons age 18 to 21 were the most likely to experience a serious violent crime, and blacks in that age group were the most vulnerable: 72 victimizations per 1,000 blacks, 50 victimizations per 1,000 Hispanics, and 46 victimizations per 1,000 whites. (Ibid., p. 1)
• Serious violent crimes for persons age 18 to 21 were 17 times higher than for persons age 65 or older. (Ibid., p. 1)
• On average each year, from 1992 to 1994, about 1 in 50 persons fell victim to a serious violent crime, among persons age 12-24, this figure was twice the rate -- 1 in 23. (Ibid., p. 2)
• Almost 1 in 10 murder victims age 18 to 21 were black. (Ibid., p. 1)

• After more than a decade of relative stability, the juvenile violent crime arrest rate increased by more than 50 percent between 1988 and 1994. (Office for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1996 Update on Violence, Statistics Summary. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.)
• American youths aged 12-17 made up approximately 10 percent of the population in 1994, yet they were the victim in about one out of every four crimes. (Understanding Violent Juvenile Offenders. (1994). National Violence Prevention Conference Program, Des Moines, IA.)
• In 1994, two-thirds of victims between the ages of 12 and 19 were attacked by someone between the ages of 12 and 20; of these crimes, 83 percent were assaults and involved the use of weapons and resulted in serious injury in 27 percent of attacks. (Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1994). National Crime Victimization Survey. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.)
• Guns accounted for 82 percent of homicides committed by juveniles in 1994. Four times as many juveniles were killed with a gun in 1994 than in 1984. ("Morbidity and Mortality Among U.S. Adolescents: An Overview of Data and Trends." American Journal of Public Heath, Vol. 86(4))
• Four of every five delinquency cases involved a male juvenile. Juvenile males accounted for 77 percent of person offense cases, 79 percent of property offense cases, and 86 percent of drug law violations in 1994. (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (1996). Delinquency Cases in Juvenile Courts, 1994. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.)
• Juvenile arrests for Violent Crime Index offenses increased by 55 percent for females versus 33 percent for males in 1993. During this time frame, female juvenile offenders were responsible for six percent of all murders, nine percent of all robberies, and 18 percent of all aggravated assaults. (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (1996). Female Offenders in the Juvenile Justice System: Statistics Summary. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.)
• Follow-up studies of children who had cases of substantiated abuse or neglect found that 26 percent of the children were later arrested as juveniles. (National Institute of Justice. (1995, March). Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse - Later Criminal Consequences, Research in Brief. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.)
• Forty-two percent of runaway youth report that while living on the street and/or in shelters they have been robbed; 43 percent assaulted; 22 percent sexually victimized; and 28 percent traded sex for money, food or housing. (Youth with Runaway, Throwaway and Homeless Experiences: Prevalence, Drug Use and Other At-Risk Behaviors. (1995). Washington, DC: U.S. Health and Human Services Department.)
• The proportion of serious violent incidents that resulted in injury was the same for juveniles (35 percent) as for adults (36 percent) in 1991. (Snyder, H. & Sickmund, M. (1995, May). "Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A Focus on Violence." Statistics Summary. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice.)

Developments in Juvenile Justice and Crime Victims

Crime victims' rights and services were elevated to national importance with the 1996 release of the National Juvenile Action Plan which, for the first time, incorporated victims' rights within the juvenile justice system into a comprehensive national framework and strategy to address juvenile violence, victims of juvenile offenders, and the juvenile justice system.

Developed by the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, with strong input from the Office for Victims of Crime, the Action Plan calls for:

• The expansion of victims' rights and services within the juvenile justice system.

• Cooperative partnerships among justice, health, child welfare, education, and social service systems for addressing juvenile crime and violence.

For additional information, see Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Combating Violence and Delinquency: The National Juvenile Justice Action Plan - Report. (U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, March 1996)

Legislative Developments

Eight states raised victims' rights in the juvenile system to constitutional status:

• The constitutions of Alaska, Idaho and Missouri provide rights for victims of juvenile offenders; the constitutions of Arizona and Utah permit the legislature to extend the rights to juvenile proceedings. In addition, in November 1996, the constitutions of Oregon and South Carolina were amended to provide rights to victims at the juvenile level. Moreover, the constitution of Oklahoma was amended to authorize the legislature to extend the rights to juvenile proceedings. (National Victim Center. (1997). Sourcebook. 1996. Arlington, VA: Author.)

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