Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999 National Report

September 1999 -- NCJ 178257

Later version:
Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report
As America moves into the 21st century, we need to forge enlightened policies for our juvenile justice system—policies based on facts, not fears. While the pictures on our television screens and the photos on our front pages raise genuine concerns that we must address, this Report, drawing on reliable data and relevent research, provides a comprehensive and insightful view of the nature of juvenile crime and violence across the Nation.

Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999 National Report offers the Congress, State legislators and other State and local policymakers, professors and teachers, juvenile justice professionals, and concerned citizens solid answers to the most frequently asked questions about the nature of juvenile crime and victimization and about the justice system’s response.

Citing FBI and other data sources, the Report demonstrates that the rate of juvenile violent crime arrests— after peaking in 1994—has consistently decreased over the past several years. However, it has yet to return to the 1988 level, the year in which dramatic increases in juvenile crime arrests were first seen. The Report also summarizes data on school violence and describes the recent downturn in the violent victimization of youth.

New findings from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, providing the most current data on self-reported delinquent and antisocial behavior, are included in the Report, which also presents data from OJJDP’s new national Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement, summarizing key findings about the characteristics of juvenile offenders in custody.

In sum, Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999 National Report, like its predecessors—Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A National Report (1995), Juvenile Offenders and Victims: Update on Violence (1996 and 1997), and Juvenile Arrests 1997 (1998)—offers an indispensable resource for informed policy decisions that will shape the juvenile justice system in the 21st century by providing a clear view of juvenile crime and the justice system’s response at the end of the 20th century.

..more.. by Howard N. Snyder -and- Melissa Sickmund

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Juvenile population characteristics
Chapter 2: Juvenile victims
Chapter 3: Juvenile offenders
Chapter 4: Juvenile justice system structure and process
Chapter 5: Law enforcement and juvenile crime
Chapter 6: Juvenile courts and juvenile crime
Chapter 7: Juveniles in correctional facilities
Index

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Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report

March 2006 -- NCJ 212906:

America’s youth are facing an ever-changing set of problems and barriers to successful lives. As a result, we are constantly challenged to develop enlightened policies and programs to address the needs and risks of those youth who enter our juvenile justice system. The policies and programs we create must be based on facts, not fears. Too often, the facts are unknown or not readily available. This Report is designed to remedy, at least in part, that information gap.

Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report draws on reliable data and relevant research to provide a comprehensive and insightful view of juvenile crime across the nation. The Report offers Congress, state legislators and other state and local policymakers, professors and teachers, juvenile justice professionals, and concerned citizens empirically based answers to frequently asked questions about the nature of juvenile crime and victimization and about the justice system’s response.

Citing FBI and other data sources, the Report demonstrates that the rate of juvenile violent crime arrests has consistently decreased since 1994, falling to a level not seen since at least the 1970s. However, during this period of overall decline in juvenile violence, the female proportion of juvenile violent crime arrests has increased (especially for the crime of assault), marking an important change in the types of youth entering the juvenile justice system and in their programming needs. The Report also describes when and where juvenile violent crime occurs, focusing attention on the critical afterschool hours. Statistics presented throughout the Report find that racial disparity in the juvenile justice system is declining.

For example, the black juvenile violent crime arrest rate in the late 1980s was six times the white rate - by 2003, it had fallen to four times the white rate. During the same period, the black juvenile arrest rate for drug abuse violations fell from five times to less than double the white rate.

The Report also presents new findings from OJJDP’s national Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement. The daily number of committed youth held in public and private facilities increased 28% between 1991 and 2003, with the increase far greater in private than in public facilities.

However, after peaking in 1999, the number of youth in custody began to fall—for the first time in a generation. In sum, Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report offers a clear view of juvenile crime and the justice system’s response at the beginning of the 21st century. It is an indispensable resource for informed professionals who strive to shape the juvenile justice system today.

..235 pages more.. CAUTION This is a 9.45 megabyte file, slow loading by Howard N. Snyder -and- Melissa Sickmund, National Center for Juvenile Justice

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Juvenile population characteristics
Chapter 2: Juvenile victims
Chapter 3: Juvenile offenders
Chapter 4: Juvenile justice system structure and process
Chapter 5: Law enforcement and juvenile crime
Chapter 6: Juvenile offenders in court
Chapter 7: Juvenile offenders in correctional facilities
Index

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